LAYC, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s Office on Latino Affairs and Columbia Height’s Best Buy Undertake Summer Initiative

The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), the region’s leading youth development organization; Columbia Height’s recently opened Best Buy; and the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs (OLA) joined efforts to launch a leadership program for youth in the District of Columbia.

Through the newly launched Summer Leadership Institute, 25 low-income and minority youth will receive advocacy and public speaking training over the summer. The group of young people will set forth youth issues they want to address and will receive the tools needed to construct proactive campaigns for change.

“Partnerships among the private, non-profit and government sectors create amazing opportunities for our young people to ensure no one stays behind. It is through collaborations like this that we can make a difference. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s and OLA’s commitment to ensure young people get heard is remarkable,” said Lori Kaplan, LAYC’s executive director. LAYC experienced this through our participation in the Mayor’s Latino Youth Summit. We are excited to work with them again through this effort. We are also fortunate to have Best Buy’s support. First they provided employment for our youth and now they are extending their hands again to young people become true leaders,” added Kaplan.

As an investment in this unique partnership among a major corporation, a premier community-based organization, and a government agency, Best Buy donated funds to assist LAYC’s coordination of the Summer Leadership Institute.

“At Best Buy, we support the communities in which employees work and live through volunteerism and grants that benefit children and education,” said Robert Delissio, general manager. “We are here not just to make profits but to help the community flourish. I am confident that through this collaboration LAYC and OLA will train our youth to become the leaders they can be.”

The Summer Leadership Institute was in part created as an immediate follow up to the successful first ever "Mayor's Latino Youth Summit". “The Summit gave Latino youth a voice that needed to be heard. It recognized that it is them that really know and understand issues affecting them and them who may have a better solution to address these issues, said Mercedes Lemp, OLA’s executive director.

The Latino Youth Committee that emerged from the Mayor's Latino Youth Summit is taking part in a Summer Leadership Institute in this partnership with LAYC and Best Buy. During the summer youth will receive intensive leadership training but the Latino Youth Committee and its work will continue long after the summer.

Youth trained in the Summer Leadership Institute will use their skills to continue to serve as advocates for the youth of Washington DC and to ensure the Summit was not a one-day event but an event with impact well into the future.

“Young people have a voice and it needs to be heard. Through the Summer Leadership Institute we will learn a more effective way to get heard,” said Edgar Martinez, participant at the Summer Leadership Institute. “I’m honored and excited to be a part of this group because I want to improve my leadership skills so I can make a difference in the community.

From countless conversations with young people, the partnering organizations understand young people are concerned about their families and neighborhoods and want to learn how to make a difference. “The Institute will help youth believe in themselves; provide them the knowledge and skills to take control of their lives in a positive way”, said Ricardo Flores, LAYC’s Advocacy Director.