At a glance
- Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) provide ongoing advice and support to school districts on policies and practices that affect students.
- YACs are formal groups working with adults, blending points of view to have a positive influence on others.
Role of YACs
Keys to success
Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) are formal groups that make decisions, advise others, or act to improve the schools and communities they serve.
YACs—sometimes called youth advisory boards—offer opportunities for youth and adults to work together. The councils can blend points of view and experiences of both youth and adults to build strong partnerships.
Reminder
Focus and goals
Youth and adults work together in YACs to decide on their focus and goals. Prevention and improvement are two examples.
Prevention
- Drug abuse.
- Sexual health risks.
To decrease students' sexual health risks, YACs could support education programs on counseling, testing, or treatment services for students.
Improvement
- Student mental health.
- Safe spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LBGTQ+) youth, students with disabilities, and other youth within a specific school district.
To increase safety for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, or another diverse sexual orientation or gender identity (LGBTQ+) youth, and students with disabilities, YACs should include a diversity of students and focus on solutions that affect their concerns.
Youth voices can make a difference
Working together
Youth work with supportive adults to make important decisions together. In this way, the YACs have a positive influence on others and have the opportunity to improve schools and communities.
