VIA Annual Youth Summit

What is the Youth Summit?

Youth Voices in action, also known as VIA, has been empowering youth since 2015.

VIA was founded after the Albuquerque PARCC walkouts by Albuquerque Public School students and has since been a part of building students leadership skills in the area of social justice and specifically education and Youth Rights.

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The main goal of the VIA Student Led Youth Summit is to provide students with training and workshops that will develop them as leaders, public speaking and students who understand the root causes of inequalities within the education system. The youth summit allows for a space where youth come together to talk openly about things they would like to see change inside their schools without being tokenized or ignored. VIA focuses on encouraging students, specifically students of color, who are not surrounded by academic or personal support, to be able to see their own potential and to develop those skills necessary to lead campaigns to make change in their schools because we believe those who are directly affected by an unjust education system have the ultimate power to create change. When youth are empowered they can create change, those changes work as a domino effect for other students to also become leaders. All they need is a space to do so. That's why VIA, as students, created the student-led youth summit. Student coordinate every single part of the youth summit; the theme, the art, the workshops and the report.

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