NJ YMCA Youth and Government (YAG) - December 2025 Newsletter

The 2025-2026 Youth and Government season has officially begun! This student-led, civic engagement leadership program gives all students grades 7-12 an opportunity to use their voice and impact their communities while embodying our core values: Honesty, Caring, Responsibility, and Respect. Our Officer Corps welcomes five new student officers this weekend to our monthly officer meetings to ensure more students can access leadership opportunities.

Our students are hard at work between our grant-committee to help source funding so all students can access the program, our experiential subcommittee re-imagining our mentorship program to ensure new delegates have a seamless onboarding to the conference experience and enhance the social-emotional aspect of our community, and our youth governors’ working on their agenda for the season to help students craft their bills and feel confident before heading to conference.

This past week (from left to right) our Youth Lt. Governor Saahir Vazirani, Press Delegate Gabriel Campos, Montclair Teen Director and Advisor Naomi Wallace, and NJYSA Youth Engagement Director Laura Rodriguez spoke at the annual Culture of Health conference to highlight the intersection of public health, policy and the role of Youth and Government. In 2025, students crafted over 130 bills addressing health and well-being.

Interested in learning more or getting involved? Fill out this form to partner with us, check out our current program locations or reach out to yag@njyalliance.org and learn more!