De Pere seeks applicants for new city youth commission

DE PERE – When De Pere’s Deputy Clerk Jessie Paque lived south of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, she served as co-liaison between the city and its youth commission.

What stood out to Paque was how much the students got involved with the community.
“The Minnesota team really strived to get the youth engaged with volunteer activities and having them make connections with community members,” she said. “It allowed them to make lasting relationships that benefited both the public and the individual in personal to professional areas.”

Fast forward a few years to present-day De Pere, where she felt the city would benefit from having more young people involved in the community and in leadership.

So she set out to launch a city youth commission here.

The City of De Pere is looking for seven to 15 high school students to join its new youth commission. Deadline to apply is April 6, and the first meeting is slated for May 27. Meetings will be the fourth Wednesday of every month at City Hall, either in the Nicolet Conference Room or the Riverview Conference Room, according to Mayor James Boyd.

Students should be between the ages of 14 and 18 and live within the West De Pere School District or Unified School District of De Pere. In the event that more than 15 students apply, the selection committee, chosen by the Mayor, will give preference to those living in the De Pere city limits.

The mission of the Youth Commission is to give students a way to get involved with local government and help them to develop into leaders.

“We are hoping to have the City of De Pere’s Youth Commissioners at several community events, to name a few — ribbon-cutting ceremonies, the Memorial Day Parade, National Night Out and the community pools opening,” Paque said, adding that students will have opportunities to volunteer in the community.

“By participating in community initiatives, members will gain hands-on experience in teamwork, communication and decision-making,” she said. “This involvement not only helps strengthen connections between youth and local government but also builds confidence, responsibility, and leadership skills that will benefit participants both now and in their future endeavors.”

The Youth Commission will serve in an advisory capacity to the Common Council and city departments on matters that affect young people and help to develop programs that will make life better for them, according to Mayor James Boyd.

He said there’s no GPA minimum nor requirement that candidates must never have a violation on their record — just that they live in one of the two public school districts and be between 14 and 18 years old.

Youth commission members will serve one-year terms and are eligible to be reappointed throughout their high school years. The Common Council will choose one of its members to serve as the liaison between the Youth Commission and Common Council. Paque will be the liaison between the City and the Youth Commission.

Two city boards, the Sustainability Commission and the Board of Park Commissioners, currently have two non-voting teen representatives each. They generally don’t get involved in discussions, although commissioners and council members seek out their opinions.

The city has never had a youth commission before.

According to ordinance 26-04 creating the De Pere Youth Commission, the commission will:

-Report every year or more often to the Common Council on its activities and recommendations;

-Advise the Common Council on policies, programs, and initiatives that affect young people in the city;

-Promote public interest and an understanding of youth issues and activities;

-Create forums or focus groups that get young people involved in municipal decision-making by enabling them to raise issues and give input to the city and influence policies;

-Encourage cooperation and interaction with city social, health and recreational programs and with Park Board and Sustainability Commission teen advisors;

-Set realistic goals and develop ways to measure the youth commission’s progress and effectiveness;

-Encourage cooperation and interaction with city social, health, and recreational programs, and with Park Board and Sustainability Commission teen advisors.

In the first few meetings, speakers from city departments, including police and fire, will be invited to give students a sense of the workings of the city.

“They (the students) are going to get taught on leadership and leadership skills and and how to get actively involved in the community,” Boyd said. “But we are going to solicit ideas from them, so I anticipate they’re going to have some kind of sessions that will be devoted to ideas and ways to foster growth within the community.”

“Throughout all of this stuff, we’re going to generate ideas...because the primary goal of all this is to promote youth engagement in municipal government and leadership development and civic responsibility among the youth,” Boyd said.

Boyd said no single issue in recent years cropped up that made the city believe it needed a team of teen advisors on hand but that parks and some downtown issues would likely be foremost.

Paque said in Minnesota, the youth commission met monthly and participated in a number of community events throughout the year.

Each meeting focused on a different facet of leadership: communication, collaboration, problem solving, time management, etc. It hosted, as its main event, a splash pad celebration to kick off summer and the opening of the city’s splash pad.

With this new commission that has the potential to be larger than the Common Council, is the Mayor concerned about youths overrunning the City?

Not in the least. In fact, just the opposite, he said.

“I’m hoping that this batch and future batches will be future leaders and they take my job sooner than later,” he said. “We want to get the youth involved — you know, not just to understand the inner workings of the government but just how they can change and shape not just here, you know, but throughout the state and throughout the nation. That’s our hope here.”