Youth and Government
Democracy Must Be Learned by Each Generation
YMCA Youth and Government is one of the nation’s oldest and largest youth civics education programs, having provided hundreds of thousands of young people with the skills, training, and relationships needed to become lifelong engaged citizens and community members.
Local clubs in North Texas continue to thrive as interest from youth ages 12 – 18 grows every year. Hosted locally by the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth, our leaders would love to have your teen join us.
Texas Youth and Government’s mission is to help teenagers become responsible citizens and future leaders of our nation.
Through actual hands-on experiences in government, the program creates an environment in which students can increase their political awareness and understanding while learning the meaning of social action.
Join Youth and Government
This program is open to all youth. To participate, students need to belong to a local Youth and Government (YG) Club. These clubs are typically hosted through a local YMCA or a partner school, with a teacher serving as a sponsor for the club.
Students choose from one of five sections
Legislative: The Legislative section involves participants identifying issues for legislation, bill writing, debating, bill presentation, and participation in a legislative body. Participants prepare legislation (bills, or sometimes joint resolutions) in their clubs for consideration, debate, and action at the District and State Conferences where bills are heard in a committee and some advance to a larger audience with the possibility of being heard by the YG Governor.
Judicial: Our Judicial program section allows students to participate in a mock trial setting. They act as judges, attorneys, witnesses, and bailiffs in a series of rounds in which they compete against other teams as either the Defense or Prosecution for Trial Court or the Appellant or Appellee for Appeals Court.
State Affairs Forum: State Affairs Forum is designed to broaden participants’ knowledge of pre-selected current events topic areas. State Affairs Forum uses the structure of committee hearings with parliamentary procedure where students propose solutions to important current issues. It encourages debate on these solutions and thereby fosters an in-depth understanding of the topics at hand.
Media: The purposes of our Media section are to provide an accurate account of the Youth and Government program and to allow students to gain meaningful, real-life experience in journalism through the publication of a newspaper, social media content, and a news broadcast at the District and State Conferences.
Governor’s Cabinet & Lobbyist: Our Governor’s Cabinet section works directly with our Youth Governor. The Youth Governor sets a legislative agenda for the State Conference. He or she then works with the Cabinet to lobby in the Legislative chambers for his or her agenda, which is comprised of specific bills or issues he or she would like to see debated and acted upon. The Lobbyists make reasoned arguments against the Youth Governor’s agenda.
Get Involved
There are many ways to become involved in the North Texas area YG programs. From direct participation as a student or sponsor to volunteering your professional time to sponsoring our students to attend District and State Conferences.
We’d love to see you get involved!
