Luke's Leaders - Wrapping up Youth and Government Program
The Luke's Leaders 8th grade program, Youth and Government, is delivered by the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis each fall. This year we had 12 students that participated. Over 10 weeks, these students learned about local government and how legislation gets proposed, created, and passed into law. Our students identified issues that they care deeply about and then wrote legislation. They tackled challenging topics, researched and wrote their bills, and learned how to debate respectfully and passionately. All of this under the expert leadership of Anders Kleiman of the YMCA, along with St. Luke’s mentors Gary Chambers and Nelsen Lentz.
One of these students, Jeremiah Sims, was recognized for his outstanding work in writing legislation related to job creation and was presented with the Social Justice award by the MSDWT School Board last week.
Five of these students attended the Middle School Model Government Conference in southern Indiana last Saturday, where they presented the bills with great success. The highlight of the day was watching their confidence grow each time they presented their bills. Here are the exciting results from the day!
- All five of our students’ bills passed during morning committee sessions, and then again in afternoon in the Senate Chamber. Brea’s “Reduce Child Trafficking” bill also passed in the House Chamber, and was signed into law by the Youth Governor.
- Preston’s bill to “Ban Racial Profiling” and Vaniya and Gloria’s bill to “Restrict Deadly Weapon Sales” received special recognition from the Youth Governor for alignment to the YMCA Mission, and Vaniya and Gloria also received an award for Outstanding Bill.
- Preston was awarded a certificate for Outstanding Delegate, and Brea and Joshua both were awarded the Outstanding Statesperson certificate.
Luke’s Leaders is a weekly, after-school leadership development initiative developed by the Outreach & Justice Ministry of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. The program is dedicated to nurturing and empowering youth to become the next generation of change makers. At Luke’s Leaders, we believe that every young person has the potential to become a leader and make a positive impact in their community.