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‘Our job as adults is to listen’: Youth voice concerns at council meeting

By Pat Crossley 5 min read

The first Youth Council meeting attracted area young people ranging in age from 9 through their teen years, eager to share their viewpoints, concerns and desires for the community they live in. Two elected officials were there to hear them out.

Williamsport City Councilman Jonah Milliken, who shared that he had been on a youth council when he was younger, and Lycoming County Commissioner Mark Mussina, asked questions of the youth and then listened and offered guidance about where to take their concerns.

Milliken could be seen taking notes as he heard the youth say they wanted more activities for a broad range of interests because not everyone is into sports.

"One thing that I wish somebody would have told me when I was younger is that people like Mark and I, we need to hear from people in our community. We need to hear from you guys so we can make good decisions about how to make this place the best it can be," Milliken told the group.

Nine-year-old Zainab Wells had prepared a letter addressed to the City Council listing what she would like to see in the community.

"What I would like to have in our community is a skating rink, a mall and a community center that has games -- a place for young kids to hang out and do other activities like movie nights for a dollar," Zainab said.

"I think it's important because it will keep kids out of trouble," she added.

Milliken brought up the new pump track that was just installed at Shaw Place park as an example of something designed for younger people.

"Which is cool for some people that want to ride bikes on that thing," he said, adding, "But, I know that's pretty specific, too."

Mussina agreed that's one of the difficulties officials deal with when deciding what to finance in a community.

"One of the challenges that we deal with is things like the pump track and bike lanes only benefit that portion of the people. It's like the community pool in Loyalsock or at Bowman -- how many people actually go to that and how many people use the Riverwalk," Mussina said.

"The goal is you kind of hit everybody -- that everybody has something that they like even though nobody's going to use all of it, some people use some of it," he said.

James Folk, 14, who is into biking, appreciates the new bike paths in the city, but he'd like even more.

"I just saw City Council did something where they're putting bike lanes in the ease of the city and I think making our city more bike accessible, more bike friendly, more pedestrian friendly...really improves the quality of life for people without even noticing," Folk said.

"I think if we can encourage more people to bike and walk where they need to go...it has health benefits, environmental benefits and I think it would just be an overall plus to the community," Folk said.

Although they discussed activities and things they would like to see in the schools, primarily the youth at this first council meeting just wanted to be heard.

In her opening remarks, Loniqua Howell, of Boy Mom Marathon, who moderated the event, told the youth that it was not their job to find a solution for every problem that was mentioned during the meeting.

"Your job tonight is just to tell us what life looks like from where you're standing. Our job as adults is to listen," she said.

When asked by Milliken why they had come to the Youth Council meeting, Ace Gair, who is in 11th grade, said he wanted to see "a better, strong youth representation throughout the community and throughout the schools."

If he could have every adult in the city listening to what he had to say, Gair said that he would want everyone to "be able to speak up and not fear that they will get shut down or not be able to speak their voice and then be told something different."

Folk, too, felt communication between city leaders and the youth was an issue.

"There's this tendency to view any leader or any politician as a bad one...I think we need the people of this city to understand that they can do something, that they can work with their local leaders. That they can do something and that not everything is like national presidential, senatorial politics, and that they have a chance to get what they want done and that they can speak about their beliefs, opinions and ideas," Folk said.

Mussina admitted that it is a challenge for elected officials to be more relatable.

"That's why we try to be out in the public and be seen...that it's not just this mysterious person that people are talking about online," Mussina said.

Milliken encouraged the youth to move forward with what had been begun at the meeting and to become a presence at council or school board meetings in order to have their concerns heard.

"What we need, though, whoever carries this conversation forward, what's important is that we have people from different neighborhoods from all over Williamsport trying to find people who may not be right in your circle," he said.

"I really appreciate you doing this and the feedback. This is super helpful," he added.

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