Councilor-at-Large Nicole McClain announced the 12 members who will comprise the new Youth and Adolescence Task Force.
The members are Lynn English High School students Dania De La Cruz, Zainab Lawal, and Brian Ramos; Lynn district teacher and coach Tristan Smith; East Coast International Church Pastor Jesse Lobato; New American Association of Massachusetts mentoring program coordinator Rouaa Ahmad, Anne-Meryll Gedeus, artist Jah’Nyah Spencer, abolitionist educator Danissa Lopez, college student and performance artist Helina Almonte, resident Martina Campbell, and Lynn Juvenile Court Officer Stacy Bryant-Brown.
In addition to McClain, Mayor Jared Nicholson and the city council were also driving forces behind the task force’s formation. The task force’s two initial focuses are after-school programming and workforce development. Its mission is to include direct participation from young people on policies concerning their future.
“The success and safety of our youth is a priority for all of us,” Nicholson said. “This task force will bring in more voices from our youth to inform the work many are doing to empower and uplift our youth.”
Ultimately, McClain said that its purpose is to inform a potential council that will be created specifically for youth and young adults in the future.
“We have the council on aging, and we were thinking we should also have a council on adolescence,” McClain said. “This task force is really being put together to create something more permanent in the city, to improve and to give obvious resources to our youth and young adults.”
She added that the group’s first objective is to identify the issues that matter most and then determine how to best engage them.
McClain said that the task force has been in the works since she first took office last April. She expressed her excitement about working with the mayor’s office, city council, and potentially the school committee on this matter moving forward.
“I’m ready to work together to help things move forward for our youth and actually have a dedicated council,” McClain said. “We’re creating here, and we’re in the beginning stages, so we’re exploring all that it can be.”
