 All right, so let's get back to H293. This is a bill that is language that will look familiar to folks who were on the committee in the last biennium. We had moved this bill out of committee with the intention of creating a state youth council. And that was pre-COVID and when COVID hit and all of the committees turned their focus to COVID recovery, this bill unfortunately fell by the wayside. So we're gonna come back to this and hear from Holly Morehouse first. And then Holly, if you want to defer to some of the young people that you have with you, we will be happy to hear from them next. So thanks for being with us, Holly. Thank you so much for the record. My name is Holly Morehouse I'm the executive director of Vermont After School and would just really like to thank this committee for your support of the bill last session and for taking up the bill this morning and hearing some testimony on it. Also like to thank representatives Lanford and Mariki as lead co-sponsors and representatives Anthony Hooper and Byowski on this committee for sponsoring the bill as well. So as the chair said, once when COVID hit and things changed in the legislature, we were disappointed that the bill couldn't continue to move forward, but didn't want to stop the work at that moment in time. It also felt with all that we were hearing from young people through the programs we work with through youth forums, that there was a real need for elevating youth voice and youth agency during COVID, right? Instead of feeding into the isolation and loneliness and lack of being able to be part of a solution or discussion. So we wanted to turn the tables. So over the summer, we convened a group. It was open to any youth that wanted to join. We did work through youth serving organizations throughout the state as a way to reach and recruit the youth, the after school programs and others. We worked with them as a way also to reach out and get some voices that we might not always hear in a forum like this. And we had some great representation. We had about 50 young people that came together over the summer. They were ages 11 to 21. We tried our best to mirror the bill language from last year on the idea of a state council to sort of practice with some of the ideas that we had in the community, especially in a COVID environment and with remote access and so forth, how that would look. And so we tried to follow a lot of those principles. We tried to make it about inclusion. So it wasn't just the youth who were able to show up to the meetings. We had avenues for young people to review the work of the youth advisory group in between meetings and give feedback. We did a lot of online documents in places for young people to pull in. And what the youth ended up coming up with was a series of recommendations. And they met with a number of legislators and including your chair and representative Marike as well as some senators and representative Lamfair about their recommendations to how they would take the language from the original bill and perhaps tweak it. And the bill that you are considering today has a number of the recommendations integrated into that. I will say two other pieces. One, you spent a lot of time which your committee did as well talking about diversity and inclusion. And I think you'll see that reflected in some of the language about how they envision an application and the qualifications. And they really were talking about there should be multiple ways for youth to put themselves forward and that should also be a youth voice involved in sort of reviewing and thinking about who should be on the committee. The other piece I know that Cheryl Wilcox is gonna speak to is the Youth Services Advisory Council. I'm a co-chair with Cheryl as well as Sarah Chesborough on that and we did do some work with the council as well around. So they're named in the bill as supporting the youth. So we did work with that Y-SET group to keep them appraised of what was happening with the youth, what recommendations were coming through and to tap into and integrate their input as well. We had, I don't see Kyle. We had two youth lined up to speak today. It's a little bit of a challenge with their schedules and so forth. But I do see Una and so I don't know if Kyle's I'll reach out to him on email. But Una, I'd love to turn it over to you to talk about what's in the bill and why you worked on it and what you'd like to see happen. Thank you. Hello and thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Una Fonte. I'm a 17 year old from Monter from Ferrisburg currently studying in Germany. Growing up as a young disabled person in rural Vermont, public systems and policies have always deeply affected my life. Whether it's the little things like less snow days because for the 10th time in my lifetime, it's the hottest year on record or the big things like wondering if this is the year that school board is finally told to cut $1 too many and the school closes or me and my classmates on three separate occasions, genuinely thinking that someone was trying to shoot up our school or on a more positive note, the fact that I'm able to speak to you today is directly because of the services I was given by the Vermont division of the blind and visually impaired. And it's not just me. Legislative decisions shaped the lives of most young Vermonters. Yet all of us under 18 have never been allowed to vote on any decisions regarding these issues nor on those who represent us in them. Which is why seeing H293 passed is so important. As proposed, it would create a statewide youth legislative council effectively giving young people a formal voice in state government. The council would consist of 28 young people ages 11 into 18. The number 28 was chosen by the summer youth group because it allows for at least one representative from each county and then proportionally the rest of the representatives would go based on the youth population of the counties. Each member would serve a three year staggered term ensuring that there's always members on the council who have experience. For the inaugural committee, the members will be chosen by the youth services committee and then after will be chosen by the outgoing members of the youth council in partnership with the youth services committee ensuring a degree and level of autonomy from youth as to who represents them. A diverse group of young members will be chosen for the committee based on their ability to advocate for the rights of and ability to represent all young Vermonters. We know that uplifting voices from marginalized communities leads to policies which strengthen the whole community. So by centering diverse members, we are best able to create a group of youth who are going to really strongly be able to articulate and advocate for what is needed for Vermonters from all backgrounds but especially young Vermonters. Once members are selected, they will start on the formal work of the committee which will mean electing a member to serve as chair as well as organizing themselves into committees. Each year there will be standing committees on education, climate, youth mental health, equality and anti-racism as well as ad hoc committees as necessary. This allows for the youth council to address a broad array of youth issues while maintaining its ability to do so in depth. There will also be an executive committee responsible for coordinating the actions of the general council in cooperation with the separate committees. The council will meet formally altogether once a month with individual committees meeting more often informally either over Zoom or in person to allow it for people who would not be able to intend in person meetings either for economic or geographical reasons. And the agency administration and the youth services committee would provide technical support and training for these meetings. The broad roles and responsibilities of the council are conducting advocacy and sharing youth voices around legislative decisions. To a certain extent this will be based off of what the youth themselves decide each year but some broad functions will remain the same such as writing a yearly report to give to the governor based on what are the best policy solutions we have to youth issues. They will also address their report to the House and Senate committee on government operations as well as any other standing committees they deem necessary as well as following up on our population goals as stipulated in 2311 of the state's population statute on population goals. And finally, they will aim to include a broad array of diverse voices and opinions from Vermont youth beyond their own which is why they will hold four annual public meetings to gather testimony from young Vermonters and this is in addition to outreach that they will likely be doing through surveys polls and their own networks and communities. Furthermore, while not proposed in the bill the youth group that met over the summer recommended having discretionary grants given to the youth council which they could use to help fund underfunded services and programs which directly impact youth. And this was decided upon after great deliberation on the basis that unfortunately youth are often a group who are tokenized and having a little bit of money to help youth issues would allow for genuine listening rather than in one ear out that other token is up. However, the bill does include that young people would be compensated for their work on this committee which is a really important step in ensuring that we recognize and understand the value of youth voice in government. So yes, the last thing is the inaugural committee would obviously be the first to experience how a youth council would run and as such after the first year of functioning they would make recommendations for possible necessary changes. So thank you so much for your time. I think here is where I was supposed to turn it over to Kyle but I don't see him yet. So yes, thank you so much for your time and yeah. Thank you, Una. It's nice to see you again. I hope that you have had a good year studying abroad. What an exciting and tumultuous time to be studying so far away from home. And thank you for staying involved in these conversations while you've been studying from so far away. Holly, is there anyone else in your group who you'd like to have us call on before we move to looking at the bill language? No, I apologize. Kyle and I are having trouble connecting and so I'll keep working on that. I apologize to the committee but I will defer back I guess to the chair if you'd like to move forward. Great, if you track down Kyle we'll be happy to hear after we do a walkthrough of the bill. So the bill can be found on our committee page and I will invite committee members to call up their bill language on their secondary device and Amron, thank you for helping us take a walk through the bill. Good morning. This is Amron Aberjaley, Office of Legislative Council. I'm going to do a walkthrough of H293. This is an act relating to the creation of the State Youth Council. And moving down onto page two, section one is findings, purpose and intent. The General Assembly finds the following, young Vermonters are one of our state's most important resources. Youths under 21 years of age represent approximately 24% of the Vermont population and reflect Vermont's diversity. Two, multiple perspective, strengthened decision-making and policy development by encouraging innovation, creativity and change. Including the unique perspectives of young persons improves state policies programs, including youth specific services. Three, Vermont's economy depends on the participation of young persons and empowering them to provide policy advice will help keep young Vermonters in the state, will also diversify our economy, making it more competitive and sustainable. Four, young persons have the right to be heard and respected. Almost all government policies and decisions have an impact on young persons' lives and youths have the right to influence those decisions both individually and collectively. Involving young persons in political processes helps build trust in democratic institutions, which in turn protects Vermont's democracy. The purpose of the bill is laid out on page three. Subsection B, the purpose of this act is to create the State Youth Council composed of young Vermonters who will have an official means of providing advice on policies that impact young persons in Vermont. The intent of creating the State Youth Council is to enhance the state's progress in reaching the population level outcomes set forth in title three, section 2311B6, Vermont's children and young people achieve their potential. And nine, Vermont has open, effective and inclusive government. The General Assembly further intends to consider the recommendations of the initial State Youth Council created in this act and to subsequently amend the council's appointing authority powers and duties accordingly. Section two codifies the State Youth Council in title three, chapter 45, sub-chapter seven. Section 2311 outlines the State Youth Council membership powers and duties. The State Youth Council is created within the agency of administration to advise the governor and the general assembly on issues affecting young persons in Vermont. Membership, the council shall be composed of not more than 28 Vermont resident youths between 18, excuse me, between 11 and 18 years of age at the time of appointment. The appointments will be made by the interagency work group Youth Services Advisory Council from an applicant pool with a focus on prioritizing diversity and inclusion, including characteristics such as county of residence, gender identity, racial identity, disabilities, age and other characteristics identified by the applicants. The agency of administration shall assist the Youth Services Advisory Council in notifying the public regarding the opportunity for youths to serve on the council. And the Youth Services Advisory Council shall accept applications for service on the council. The application process should emphasize the need for diverse qualified candidates. A successful candidate must demonstrate a commitment to inclusion and the youth of the state and the ability to work with others and to listen to others. The Youth Services Advisory Council shall appoint members of the council for three year staggered terms and shall strive to appoint council members who represent a variety of youth in the state. I am now moving into page five. The Youth Services Advisory Council shall consult with members of youth advocacy groups concerning initial appointments to establish the council and then shall consult with the council regarding appointments for all subsequent terms. In terms of the council membership, the council shall elect a chair from among its members. The council will have a variety of committees, both ad hoc and standing, including the Youth Voice Committee, the Education Committee, the Equity and Anti-Racism Committee, the Climate Change Committee and the Youth Mental Health Committee. For powers and duties, the council may meet at least one time per month, hold up to four public hearings annually, gather input from Vermont youths through surveys or polls and evaluate the state's progress in reaching the population level outcomes set forth above and recommend to the Joint Committee on Government Accountability any revisions to the population level indicators for those outcomes that the council finds necessary to better reflect data that impacts Vermont youths. I'm now on page six. The council shall provide advice to the governor and the general assembly on policy changes necessary to improve the lives of Vermont youths. The governor shall meet annually with the council to hear and receive the council's advice and recommendations on policies that impact youths of Vermont. The council shall report annually its advice and recommendations to the government operations committees, the House and Senate and to any other standing committees it deems appropriate. The report may be in verbal form. In terms of assistance to the committee, the council shall have the administrative technical and legal assistance of the agency of administration to assist with council directed activities such as in assisting with meeting scheduling and logistical support, providing information technology support and providing any technology or technological devices necessary for the council to perform its duties. In addition, the council shall also have support from the youth services advisory council. For meeting attendance, members of the council may attend council meetings by electronic or other means without being physically present at a designated meeting location. The general assembly finds that such virtual meeting attendance is particularly expedient for council members from remote areas of the state to participate in meetings but also encourages council members to be physically present at meeting locations when possible. Council members are able to receive per diem compensation and reimbursement of expenses as permitted under title 32 section 1010 for not more than 16 meetings per calendar year. For purposes of this subsection, meeting would also include public hearings. These payments will be made from the monies appropriated to the agency of administration. For initial provisions establishing the state youth council, I'm now on subsection A on the bottom of page seven. The youth services advisory council shall appoint the initial state youth council on or before November 1st, 2021. The initial appointments shall be for two and three year terms in order to provide staggered council member terms. B, training from funds appropriated to the agency of administration to assist with state youth council directed activities and in consultation with this youth services advisory council. The agency shall provide to the state youth council training on general state policies, how to formulate policy proposals, government operations, public speaking, meaning etiquette and leadership. In addition to the state youth council's duties set forth above honor before January 15th, 2023, the council shall recommend to the house and senate committees on government operations the manner in which its members should be appointed or elected in any other amendments to this enabling law. There is a sunset of the state youth council in section four on page eight, which the state youth council would be repealed on February 1st, 2025. And the effective date of this bill will be upon passage. Thank you, Amron. So questions from committee members either for Amron about the language on the page or for one of the members of the public who are here with us, Tanya Vihosti. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am curious about the sunset clause and why that exists. I suspect we won't stop needing to hear from youth in 2025. Yes, and I'm gonna defer to, I think John Gannon to explain sort of generally why we put a sunset in when we create new councils and commissions. So putting a sunset in allows the legislature to review a board or commission that we've set up and gives us an opportunity to assess whether there need to be any modifications to the statute because what we've found is that we are very good at creating boards and commissions and not so good at getting rid of them if they're no longer serving a useful purpose. Now, I totally agree with you that I doubt that the youth council will not be needed after 2025, but I think it's a good opportunity for the legislature to take a look at and see if there need to be any modifications in the legislation. Great, so it doesn't automatically sunset it. It simply puts it in front of the sunset committee. That's helpful for me to understand. Thank you. It actually puts it in front of our committee again. Yes, to the extent that the council is functioning leading up to that date, they will come back and tell us that they would like to continue to function and then we can renew or extend that sunset date. Other questions from committee members? Mark Higley. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure who I should address this to, but a 28 member commission seems rather large to me. Just wondering if it was ever considered to look at more, I mean, there could be the other qualifications for the individuals, but making sure that each county is represented by at least one member. Was that ever considered? So yes, who wants to speak to that? Una, do you have an answer to that? Yes, apologies, Madam Chair. I wasn't familiar with the Zoom protocol. No worries. Yes, I do have an answer. So yes, the 28 members was actually set out with the formal intention of one member from each county. And then 28 was chosen because Chittenden County obviously has more youth than Allyson County due to sheer size. And it seemed a bit unfair to then assume that the youth in both those counties were equal, which is why 28, so some counties with more youth could have more representatives. Well, I guess that concerns me a little bit. I don't necessarily go along with that thinking that if I understood you correctly, you're thinking that Chittenden County should have more representative because of the number of students. Sorry, not specifically Chittenden County was used as an example, but using census data, you can obviously tell which county has more youth and so they would, yes, get more representatives. I see. Okay, thank you. All right. Other questions from committee members? Mike Marwicky. I have a question I'd like Una to address as well. And I know if we're on the floor, we're not allowed to ask questions that we have the answers to, but I'd like her to give the rest of the committee who might not have been here several years ago to share the concerns about equity on the makeup of this council. Meaning you want me to answer why we have decided on equity? What I'd like you to do is explain how you'll make sure that the membership will be equitably distributed for recognizing BIPOC remonters and other communities that might not otherwise be represented. Oh, yes, thank you so much for asking this. This was a huge part of discussion amongst our youth this summer because it is crucially important. One aspect is the application will be in multiple forms. This is primarily for young remonters with disability because some people might find it easier to send in a video than a written application. Additionally, we would conduct outreach. There's 50 of us and we all have our networks and there would be a strong effort to reach directly out to BIPOC. Youth organizations that are doing really important work around youth advocacy and anti-racism work in the state already and encourage their members to apply. Thank you. Sam LaFave. Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank you for being here. It is great to see you interested in what we do. So I'm not sure who this question should be to but if we're looking at page four, we see that a successful candidate must demonstrate A and B and I apologize if I have missed where other, I see up on lines seven, eight and nine of page four, we're also looking at prioritizing. How are we sure that there's gonna be equal representation of different groups when it comes to, so as we see in our body here, there's a equal representation, maybe not equal, but there's representation from all different groups of political background. And so when we're talking about policy, how are we sure that there's also gonna be voices heard from different aspects that way? I do agree it's very crucial and very important to make sure that characteristics of the county and racial identity, disabilities age, that is crucial and I applaud that. But I also wanna make sure that we're looking at diverse backgrounds of policy as well. Anyone wanna jump in with an answer to that? Go ahead, Holly. I'd like to start at least and I'm happy to defer to Luna. The youth over the summer was gonna spend a lot of time on this question and they actually went as far as to actually draft a potential application process so they could get at what kinds of questions, what kind of information they should draw out. They also looked at should it be a local election or should it be an application? And they really went towards the application way to be a way that you could hear some different voices and they put in a section that's about an essay or as Luna said, if it's a video, some way to express yourself to really talk about where you're coming from and what your viewpoints are and what you care about and in that application process and in that process of working with the youth services advisory committee and the former at that point youth council members to really sort of build that diversity across geography, age groups, interests, viewpoints and so forth. So I think that it was relying on this sort of conversation through the applications and what youth want to speak to. Luna, did you wanna add anything else? Because I know you all spent a lot of time. I think you summed it up pretty well and I think ultimately the goal of the council is advocating for issues that face youth. It's not going to be a partisan council and I think members are gonna be chosen on their commitment to youth and youth issues and how they can best represent that and political opinions may factor into that and they may not if it would be based on what they put in their application and how they see their identity either racially disability-wise or politically and how that best allows them to advocate for Vermont youth. All right, Tanya Vihowski. Thank you, Madam Chair. If there is a draft application, I wonder if you would be willing to share that with the committee to take a glance at just to see what that process might look like. Absolutely and that has come all the way through the youth that hasn't gone all the way through the Youth Services Advisory Council. So, but we can definitely send that to the committee. Thank you. Peter and Anthony. Thank you very much and I'm really a supporter of this. Matter of fact, I remember seeing Uma at the gathering of change the story in the fall the State House way back, I don't know, it was October, maybe I was really neat, all the young people there. Anyway, my question and maybe Emma uncovered this, I just don't recall to be sure that there's plenary authority amongst the members of the council to adopt any internal governance procedural rules that they find useful and necessary. As representative Higley pointed out, 28 people is rather large for a governing body and obviously there will come a time when some kind of procedural, how shall I say, rules will have to be adopted and I wanna be sure that you have the internal capacity to do that and do it independently and not be influenced by any kind of outside intervention. Thank you. I can address that and then maybe pass it over to Holly. So after the first year in operation, those youth council members will have had experience and will best understand what rules they need to add. So after one year, they can make adoptions as for internal rules and for governance, self-governance. They will have full autonomy to set this up in terms of being able to do so, pointing back to the group over the summer that was 50 youth and 50 youth is obviously like is far more than 28 and we were able to within this group set up rules which allowed us to function in a manner which was expedient, efficient and allowed for all voices to be heard. And I have full faith in the ability of the members of the youth council who are selected to be able to do this themselves. I can't say exactly what it will look like because obviously the group has not been formed yet and therefore the needs will be probably different from what I can predict. I'm not sure if Holly has anything else to add. Thank you. I'd like to also, I think related to this. I'm not sure I'll defer to the committee if there needs to be specific language for the youth council to establish rules and procedures but part of what worked over the summer with the group of 50 young people was pulling in all the best knowledge we had around youth practices. And it doesn't, a youth council shouldn't and won't look exactly the same as your committee or an adult council. That we use some different strategies around breakouts to really make sure those young voices were heard and jam boards and things to vote and rich discussion but we had a variety of techniques. And I think one of the strengths of this bill is it doesn't set up a youth council and just expect 11 to 18 year olds although I will say Una and some of the others could run this but to function without any support. And so that connection and what's built in the bill around the youth services advisory council which is a group of youth development experts to be there and be in position to help guide by the side not step on in any way but just to help with those pieces and problem solving and so forth. I think is one of the strengths for me of a bill like this. Thank you. Mike Marwicky. What I'd like to add to that is that one of the reasons we wanted the sunset when we did was so in case we need to take a look at helping things work a little better we had that opportunity. You know that the real possibility exists that these students are gonna show us how to work together better than we do but if not then if there needs to be some tweaking we can help that happen too when we look at this again at the sunset. Thanks Mike, Mark Higley. Thank you. This is another question I guess for Yuna as far as my kids have been grown and out of the house for a number of years. So just wondering if throughout the state if you're aware as to whether there's any other groups in certain schools that meet and take up similar issues whether they're youth groups or student council groups or whatever just curious to know what is going on out there in the schools regarding this. Thank you so much for your question. I obviously cannot speak for every school across the state. I know that Winooski students have been doing amazing work around anti-racism in Vermont and the raising of the Black Lives Matter flag. I know I can speak the most about for gens as that is my high school. There was a lot of work around youth voice and education and communicating school redesign and designing youth adult partnership and learning. I know that there is actually a statewide Vermont anti-racism committee comprised of primarily BIPOC students who've been working on getting books to classrooms about anti-racism. I know that once again for gens there was a very strong anti-racism and social justice group which partnered directly with the community and throughout the state there is a strong collaboration of many environmental groups. Once again, going back to for gens because it's my old school. For gens, Middlebury and Addison's sustainability groups often partnered with each other. You'll notice a lot of these are on the intersect of other issues beyond just youth voice. Of course, oh yes, and of course the youth Bobby who's been doing amazing work. But generally these cross different issues because youth issues are the issues the rest of us face just in, we face them in different way because we can't vote on them. Our voices often aren't heard on them. And that's part of why the youth council will have separate committees to address the way specific issues affect youth. Those are just some of the examples. A great way to find out more because there's hundreds is a lot of them have Instagram pages or on school websites. Thank you, Yuna. Al Colston. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to share a comment. And I just want Uma and her team to know that I strongly support a state youth council prior to coming to the legislature. I spent five years as executive director of the partnership for change, which is a school change initiative that focused on Winooski and Burlington school districts. And we helped the high school shift to a student-centered learning model. There I learned about the power of youth voice and agency. And for those members of this committee who are new we experienced a very powerful and convincing presentation in our last session. From the youth team. And as with the partnership for change many of us adults learned so much through the youth leadership. And I believe that will be the same case for the general assembly. So I strongly support this bill. Thank you. Thanks Hal. Any other questions from committee members? Excellent. Well, I'm so glad that we had an opportunity to come back to hear some testimony on this. And I wanna thank you all for doing work on this in the interim, you know, taking up the progress that we made last year and really running with it to try to give the legislature some more feedback about what this youth led movement would look like if we were to create this youth council. So my hope will be that we will come back to this issue after town meeting break. And so if there is any additional information you wanna get us or if Kyle is able to join at some point in that following week that would be fantastic. And so any last words from our youth council folks Cheryl. Hi, thank you. I don't wanna throw off the flow. It sounds like you're wrapping up. Cheryl Wilcox from the department of mental health and one of the chairs of the youth service advisory council. Just at some point, if it's possible to talk about in the bill where it calls out the agency of administration had discussions that the agency of human services between the department of health myself and with our secretary's office. And we actually wondered if having a department named like the health department would be helpful for moving those pieces through. So having the appropriations sit with BDH and our group, our YSAC group support. And I'm happy to talk more about that or down the road but just wanted to respectfully request. It might help for efficiency sake of this group and our support as the youth service advisory council. That is an excellent suggestion. And so I'm gonna ask Mike Merwicky as our resident prime sponsor to convene a cafeteria conversation about whether that makes sense. So I do appreciate you bringing that up as a suggestion and we should definitely have a few conversations off to the side before we come back to this after town meeting week to decide what the right direction forward is. Go ahead, Mike. Since I've got Holly and Cheryl here now, I will be in touch and we'll talk. Sounds great, thank you. Excellent. Any last questions from committee members or generally what more information would you like to have that we can assemble when we come back after town meeting break, right? Not seeing anybody diving in for their Zoom hand. So that is good news folks in the committee and folks outside watching. If you have interest or questions that you would like to have answered, please do reach out to us and we'll let representative Merwicky be the captain of this project in assembling whatever other testimony we might need after town meeting break. So Una, thank you for zooming in from so far away. How much longer are you studying abroad? I have been extraordinarily lucky enough to have a scholarship for two years to continue studying at the United World College on journey with students from a hundred, with from nearly a hundred other countries. What an amazing opportunity, that's great fun and I hope that you're enjoying every minute of it. Thank you so much. All right, thank you committee and thank you to the Youth Council folks for being with us this morning. I think that is the end of our work here this morning and we will be back on the house floor at 1.15.