THIS IS A YOUTH DRIVEN SUMMIT FOR YOUTH, BY YOUTH

We, the Multnomah Youth Commission, established the Youth Against Violence Committee (YAV) in 2011, in response to the growing violence directed towards young people. We are currently focused on Anti-Gay and Gender, Cyberbullying, Gang, School (Bullying), Home, Police, and Sexual and Dating Violence. As the official youth policy body for the City of Portland and Multnomah County, we will not tolerate these acts, which create a hostile and unsafe environment for all youth throughout our city and county.

We are hosting our 2nd Annual Rob Ingram Youth Summit Against Violence on March 16, 2013 at the Ambridge Event Center (1333 NE MLK Jr. Blvd). Adult policymakers and community leaders are invited to attend the summit from 2:45 to 5:00pm. Our intention is to integrate youth and adults in the work our community does to prevent violence. We hope to continue the work from last year’s summit, translating policy recommendations into actions, until the issues of violence have ceased.

The first part of the summit is for youth only to caucus, build community, and develop action steps related to last year’s policy recommendations. The presence of invited policymakers and community leaders is requested in the afternoon to listen to youth’s stories of violence and engage young people in dialogue around how we together can take steps to reduce violence in our community.

The goals of the summit are to…

• Provide resources for youth to deal with violence they experienced and/or currently experience in their lives

• Inform policymakers with the experiences youth face regarding violence and strengthen our youth-adult partnerships to implement our policy recommendations and actions.

• Educate youth and adults about Our Bill of Rights: Children + Youth and the importance of its implementation into all decision making areas in the community

• Bring diverse youth from across the region together to share ideas and experiences regarding violence and build a youth movement for social change