Minnesota YMCA Youth in Government 17-19
Minnesota Youth in Government (YIG) is a youth-led experience that engages middle and high school youth in democratic governing leadership. Students learn about government process and gain an understanding of local, state, national and international concerns. They research and debate, participate in model Assemblies, United Nations, Youth Conferences on National Affairs, retreats and trainings, and National Judicial Competition, and gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints in respectful ways.
$200,000 each year is for grants to the Minnesota Civic Education Coalition: Minnesota Civic Youth, the Learning Law and Democracy Foundation, and YMCA Youth in Government to conduct civics education programs for the civic and cultural development of Minnesota youth. Civics education is the study of constitutional principles and the democratic foundation of our national, state, and local institutions and the study of political processes and structures of government, grounded in the understanding of constitutional government under the rule of law.
- Ten new YIG groups will participate in YIG Model Assembly or Model United Nations
- Existing groups will remain involved in the YIG events and bring new youth into their program
- YIG printed program collateral will be provided to new and existing groups to help promote 2018-2019 conferences and events
- YIG Program Director will present the YIG Sampler to up to 5 conferences and at State Fair events
In the period of January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019, we achieved the following progress on our goals:
- In February 2019, the State Program Director conducted outreach to promote Model UN Sampler to the following school districts, with particular focus on high schools: Dassel-Cokato; Hutchinson; Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart; this trip also included McCloud County Extension (4-H office for McCloud County) and Willmar area (Dream Technical Academy, Kandiyohi 4-H extension, Kandiyohi YMCA). From this trip, the Willmar Area YMCA registered a group of 5 young people for the sampler.
- In May 2019, the State Program Director conducted outreach to the following areas in Minnesota to promote Youth In Government programming: Alexandria School District; Becker County 4-H Extension; Brainerd Area YMCA; Clay County 4-H Regional Extension Office; Crookston High School; Crow Wing County 4-H Extension; Hubbard County 4-H Extension; Marshall County 4-H Extension; Moorhead School District; Pennington County 4-H extension; Red Lake County 4-H extension; St. Cloud YMCA and St. Cloud Tech; Thief River Falls School District;. Besides Hubbard and Becker, outreach focused on educating new communities who have not yet participated in YIG about programming.
- The State Program Director has been working with the YMCA’s digital marketing team to plan and implement a yearly marketing strategy. To date, the Model Assembly brochure has been printed; the Model UN brochure and year end impact report are in the final stages of development. We also completely designed our website due to merging with Minnesota Civic Youth (more details in later questions).
- The State Program Director planned and began implementing a strategy to increase participation with existing delegations to increase involvement.
$200,000 each year is for grants to the Minnesota Civic Education Coalition: Minnesota Civic Youth, the Learning Law and Democracy Foundation, and YMCA Youth in Government to conduct civics education programs for the civic and cultural development of Minnesota youth. Civics education is the study of constitutional principles and the democratic foundation of our national, state, and local institutions and the study of political processes and structures of government, grounded in the understanding of constitutional government under the rule of law.
- Ten new YIG groups will participate in YIG Model Assembly or Model United Nations
- Existing groups will remain involved in the conference events and continue to grow to bring new youth into their program
- YIG printed program collateral will be provided to new and existing groups to help promote 2020-2021 conferences and events
- YIG Program Director for outreach will present the YIG Sampler and VIP conference tours to teachers and school administrators
From July 1 to March 30 (at which time staff was furloughed due to COVID), the state program director for outreach connected with every superintendent in the state to share our programs. In addition, he conducted in-person visits to the following:
Dassel-Cokato Schools
Hutchinson High
McLeod County Extension
Buffalo Lake-Hector High
DREAM Technical Academy
Kandiyohi County Extension
Kandiyohi County YMCA
Crookston High
Red Lake County Extension
Thief River Falls School District
Pennington County Extension
Marshall County Extension
Moorhead High
Clay County Extension Regional Office
Becker County Extension
Hubbard County Extension
Brainerd Area YMCA
Crow Wing County Extension
Lake City Schools
Wabasha County 4-H
Winona Family YMCA
Winona County Extension
Mower County 4-H
YMCA of Austin
Blooming Prairie High
Owatonna High
Steele County Extension
Waseca County Extension
Blue Earth County Extension
Fairmont High
St. James High
Wantowan County Extension
Cottonwood County Extension
Bedell Family YMCA
Pipestone County Extension
Marshall Area YMCA
Fon du Lac School
Cromwell-Wright School
McGregor High
Aitkin County Extension
St. Francis High
Braham Area High
Hinkley-Finlayson High
Cannon Falls High
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial High
This program year, the following either participated for the first time or participated in a new program
that they had not been involved with before:
- Carlton High (Carlton) 3 students
- CHOICE Technical Academy (Owatonna) 3 students
- Cologne Academy (Cologne) 3 students
- Eagan YMCA (Eagan) 5 students
- Faribault High (Faribault) 4 students
- Cook County YMCA (Cook County, YMCA) 5 students
- Academy of Holy Angels (Minneapolis) 7 students
- Itasca County 4-H (Grand Rapids) 3 students
- Mesabi Area YMCA (Virginia) 2 students
- Parnassus Prep (Maple Grove) 12 students
- St. Anthony Village High (Minneapolis) 5 students
The program director also completed a Model UN Sampler experience for 5 young people from Kandiyohi County Family YMCA.