The Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative’s Youth City Council is a group of ten teens, ages 14 to 19, who are focused on making Niagara Falls a more youth-friendly community.
Through civic engagement and youth empowerment, the teens are already making positive change. In fact, in late 2016 through early 2017, the group joined with the Healthy Behaviors work group to address Niagara Falls’ high teen pregnancy rates. They advocated for improvements in the quality of sexual health education provided in the schools, and the changes they fought for are now being implemented in Niagara Falls City School District.
The Youth City Council is now focused on encouraging the City of Niagara Falls to adopt a youth participatory budgeting process that will enable their peers to envision and advocate for specific improvements in the community