Written September 9th, 2016 by
Rhea Fabricante, Teen Librarian
With school (and the upcoming Presidential Election) just around the corner, our TAB teens are ahead of the curve and busy with planning our upcoming event:The Yolo Youth Rally which will be held the last weekend in September.
The Youth Rally is essentially a youth leadership conference with different life-skills workshops. The main theme of the conference will be voting and elections and we are partnering with Yolo County’s Elections Office to educate youth on the importance of voting and civic participation.
The concept of the Youth Rally began out of conversation and collaboration with UC Davis’s Early Academic Outreach Program‘s director, Rogelio and our TAB members.
Teens want to get involved and make a positive difference! They just need guidance in how to get involved… and voting is one of the most important civic duties that can achieve that.
We had some really great meetings and discussions, and here is the breakdown of ideas that we all went over during a recent TAB meeting:
EAOP will be in charge of the logistics of workshop planning while TAB contributes ideas that teens want to learn more about.
So far, we have Travis Credit Union presenting about financial literacy for teens and the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center presenting about Conflict Resolution skills. Experts have been contacted for all the other topics, but we are waiting for confirmation…
TAB member, Rosaamelia, attended one of the Executive Leadership Group that is planning the Elections and Voting component of the Youth Rally. This portion of the rally will provide all the educational resources on topics like;
- How to register to vote
- How to find factual information on ballot issues
- How to read a ballot
- How does a bill become a law
- How can teens start a bill to create a new law
- How the voting process works
- How are government officials elected
- What is the difference between local and national elections
- What is a measure or proposition
- What are my voting rights
- What are the voting dates and times
Held at the Yolo County Administrative Center on 625 Court Street, Rosaamelia got to sit in with:
- Jesse Salinas, Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters for Yolo County
- Rogelio Villagrana, Director for UC Davis Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP)
- Rhea Fabricante, Teen Services Librarian for
City of Woodland Public Library - Joann Ramirez, Student Engagement and Outreach Specialist for Woodland Community College
- Lori Perez, Director of College and Career Readiness for Yolo County Office of Education
- Steve Rea, Program Manager for Yolo County Office of the Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters
- Ana Morales, Confidential Secretary to
Jesse Salinas, Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voter
This meeting demonstrated just one aspect of all the planning needed to organize a county-wide event for youth and all the different organizations needed to make it happen.
TAB member, Sydney, helped to create and design the flyer that will be used to advertise the rally:
The culminating event will be an Elections Bash held at the Elections Office during the Elections day, November 8th. We are still in the early stages of the planning process for that event but we can share a sneak peak at the event flyer that TAB member, Amber, helped to design:
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue with planning! If you would like to help out and share ideas, please let me know here!
Thanks everyone!
Woodland Library Teens 