ATTACHMENT #1
2024 Youth Leadership Summit Report
2024 Youth Leadership Summit | ii
City Council
Al Adam, Mayor
David Newman, Mayor Pro Tem
Bob Engler, Councilmember
Kevin McNamee, Councilmember
Mikey Taylor, Councilmember
City of Thousand Oaks 2023-24 Youth Commission
Benjamin Glaubke, Chair Lindsay Freedman, Vice Chair Rayna Doshi Rheyah Gangadharan Timothy Ha Nithilan Jeyakumar
Chenya Kwon Alex Lee Miguel Macaraig
Min Park Helen Reveles Jane Staley
Sarah Mailes, Community Services Analyst, City of Thousand Oaks Whitney Luxenberger, Senior Administrative Specialist, City of Thousand Oaks 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
(805) 449-2118
www.toaks.org/youth
[email protected]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to
Youth Commission Planning Committee: Benjamin Glaubke, Linday Freedman, Rayna Doshi, Chenya Kwon, Min Park, and Jane Staley
Conejo Valley Unified School District and Thousand Oaks Teen Center for inviting students to apply
Conejo Valley Unified School District Trustee Bill Gorback for serving as the keynote speaker
Community leaders and student participants who made this summit possible Community Leader Attendees
City of Thousand Oaks ( CTO): Mayor Pro Tem David Newman, City Manager Andrew Powers, Assistant City Manager Ingrid Hardy, Deputy City Manager Akbar Alikhan Conejo Recreation and Park District (CRPD): Board Chair George Lange, Board Director Marissa Buss, Board Director Nellie Cusworth
Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD): President Cindy Goldberg, Trustee Bill Gorback, Trustee Lauren Gill, Trustee Lisa Powell, Trustee Karen Sylvester, Deputy Superintendent Business Services Dr. Victor Hayek, Assistant, and Superintendent of Instruction Kenneth Loo, Director of High Schools Brian Mercer California Lutheran University: Vice President Regina Biddings-Muro, and Community Relations Manager Sommer Barwick
Thousand Oaks Police Department: Police Chief Jeremy Paris Thousand Oaks Community Leaders: Vice President, Community, Employer & Government Relations at Los Robles Health System Amy Commans, President/CEO of the Greater Conejo Chamber of Commerce Danielle Borja, and Youth Equity Coordinator at the County Executive Office of DEI Lucuas Saucedo
Student Attendees
Thank you to all the students who participated in the discourse. We appreciate your effort during your very busy school week!
2024 Youth Leadership Summit Report | v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BACKGROUND................................................................................................................1 Summit Overview ......................................................................................................1 Summit Format..........................................................................................................1 Demographics ...........................................................................................................2 DISCOVERIES AND OUTCOMES...................................................................................4 Overview of Discoveries............................................................................................4 Summary of Outcomes..............................................................................................5 NEXT STEPS ...................................................................................................................6 2024 Youth Leadership Summit Report | 1
BACKGROUND
The City of Thousand Oaks Youth Commission was established in 1985. It consists of 13 members between the ages of 13-18. The role of the Youth Commission is to serve as an advisory body to the City Council on matters dealing with youth.
The Youth Leadership summit has been a signature biennial event for the Youth Commission since Council adopted the City’s original Five-Year Youth Master Plan in July 2002. The Youth Leadership Summit is designed to provide youth an opportunity to engage with local leaders to learn from their leadership, as well as to share concerns and ideas. In opposite years the Youth Commission implements some of the recommendations learned at the summit. It also assists the Youth Commission in setting annual goals. The most recent Youth Leadership Summit was March 13, 2024.
Summit Overview
After several months of planning, the Youth Commission hosted the 2024 Youth Leadership Summit on March 13, 2024. The event included 60 high school and middle school students (including 11 Youth Commissioners), and 21 community leaders.
In planning the evening activities for the Youth Leadership Summit, the Youth Commission’ s goal was to accomplish the following:
Provide a local speaker to motivate and inspire the attendees. Allow students to have valuable discourse, sharing youth perspectives and ideas with a variety of community leaders.
Learn how to discuss important matters in a group setting, e.g., be respectful of each other, learn how to engage each other.
Provide time for students to have organized discussions and input for the City.
Summit Format
Local schools and organizations that serve youth were requested to choose a diverse group of students to fill out an application to be considered for participation in the leadership summit.
In addition to demographic information, students were requested to answer the following questions on the applications:
1. Rank what you think are the biggest issues facing Thousand Oaks youth Today? (Mental Health, Environment, School Safety/Bullying, Substance Use, Things to do, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion / Belonging, Social/ Emotional Learning, Negative Impacts of Social Media)
2. What are 3 questions you would like to discuss at the youth summit?
3. In a sentence or two, what do you hope to gain from this experience? The goal of this application and these specific questions was two-fold: first, to better understand the youth’s perspective of the problems they are facing, and second, to give the applicants a sense of direction for what this summit aimed to do. The Youth Commission used application responses to develop table assignments and topics for discussion. The schedule for the evening was as follows:
3:30 p.m. Check-In/Group Introductions
4:00 p.m. Welcome
4:10 p.m. Leader Roundtables
5:15 p.m. Dinner
5:45 p.m. Keynote Speaker Bill Gorback, Trustee, Conejo Unified School District 6:15 p.m. Break
6:20 p.m. Youth-Only Discussion
7:45 p.m. Wrap up and Evaluations
Eleven groups of students were formed considering their age and their topics of interest, as submitted on the application. For the Leadership Roundtable Discussions, two community leaders were assigned to each table and every 20 minutes the groups rotated to provide students the opportunity to meet and dialogue with a minimum of six leaders.
Leaders were provided table topics to use for conversation starters and to help facilitate the discussion. Leaders were invited to stay for dinner and the keynote speaker.
A Youth Commissioner was responsible to take notes and help facilitate the Leader roundtable discussions and the Youth-Only focus groups and submit a summary of their group’s experience for the compilation and development of this report.
Demographics
Applications were reviewed, and 72 students were invited to attend (61, plus 13 Youth Commissioners). Below are school and grade demographics of the 2024 Youth Leadership Summit applicants.
5 1
3 1
5 3
1 8
3 13
29 Los Cerritos Middle School
Oaks Christian
Redwood Middle School
Sequoia Middle School
Sycamore Canyon Middle School
Conejo Valley High School
La Reina
Newbury Park High School
Oak Park High School
Thousand Oaks High School
Westlake High School
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Applicant School
9 6
10 15
23 9
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
0 5 10 15 20 25
Applicant Grade
DISCOVERIES AND OUTCOMES
Overview of Discoveries
During the Leader Roundtable Discussions, students rotated through three sets of leaders to share their ideas and input on a variety of topics. During the Youth-Only discussion, Youth Facilitators worked with their peers to identify the top two-three priority topics within the group to discuss. Highlighted topics are identified below by each facilitator.
Facilitator Commissioner Benjamin Glaubke
Transportation: Students mentioned that a better way to improve the school system is to provide better transportation to and from school. They feel that there's not many bus routes that can take students to school or close to school.
Students agree that the addition of bus routes going to and from neighborhoods and schools could improve attendance, tardiness, and focus in class. Youth mentioned a lack of education for young kids on bike safety, not many kids use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), not using public transportation, feeling like there’s been a lot more accidents, teenage drivers who are reckless or just poor drivers, and pedestrians being hit while walking along or across the road. Youth would like to add more stop signs and traffic lights along roads where drivers may speed e.g. Westlake Blvd., adding more bike lanes to make it safer for bikers to ride on the street, at lower levels of school teach kids about PPE and how to be safe when riding bikes or walking along/across the street, promoting bus routes that the youth would probably want to take e.g. the route to the Oaks Mall, show kids that taking public transportation is safe so they don’t have to worry about anything, have bus routes that go directly to schools before and after school, re-introduce redlight cameras, pave over potholes, lower speed limits in areas that have a lot of accidents, offer drivers education classes in high school, and build more crosswalks.
Education: Students agreed that teachers should be encouraged to teach the material so the kids can understand it rather than just teaching it to do well on a test. They felt that this could be a solution to mental health, attention, and phone use problems in class. They agree that better tutoring opportunities that are meant for students with extracurriculars should be provided. This will allow them time to participate in sports/clubs and get help with work. Substance Abuse: Students agree this has been a major problem in schools. It is prevalent in both high schools and middle schools. Teens feel that substance abuse can lead to mental health issues and struggling grades in class. Solutions they came up with were harsher punishments for those who are caught using substances at school and more campus supervisors making sure that students are not going into the bathrooms to vape. One student in my group admitted she vapes and says it is easy to do so at school due to the lack of supervision in the bathrooms during class time. She said that she has not been affected negatively by using nicotine, but she does know people whose grades have slipped and started using more illicit substances due to vaping.
Environmental Issues: Youth agreed that some common problems include food waste on campuses, trash around school and/or community, trash falling out of Athens trucks, carbon emissions related to gas powered cars and fewer fast EV charging stations. Youth proposed such solutions as more compost bins at schools, incentivize people to clean up trash at schools, more trash cans on campuses, more community run trash cleanups, nets/funnels on trash trucks to keep trash from falling out, advocate more for/incentivize purchasing electric cars, and implement more EV charging stations into shopping areas/high traffic parking lots.
Homelessness: Youth mentioned some problems like an increase of homeless in the area, mental health issues among homeless, lack of low-income housing, drug addiction is prevalent among homeless, and a negative stigma toward homeless. A few proposed solutions include building more homeless shelters, organizing food drives, free and City funded psychiatry for homeless, building more low-income housing/apartment complexes, low-cost or free rehab for homeless, raising awareness and encouraging people in the community to donate and support the homeless in any way possible.
Facilitator Commissioner Rayna Doshi
Substance Abuse: Youth discussed how gender-neutral bathrooms have increased the students' usage of drugs at school, and how bathroom sensors aren’t that effective. A student discussed how their restrooms reeked of a strong smell, another student discussed how there is one bathroom they do not use due to the stigma that has been placed upon it. Youth came up with different ways to reduce drug usage: implementing more education on drugs was one of them, they felt there isn’t much anti-vaping education in school. Youth also felt health class topics aren’t very repeated after the course is completed, it would be very beneficial to integrate such topics into the other courses students plan on taking later in school.
Youth also discussed how the existing program “breakthrough” should be more accessible for all students, and they shouldn’t feel like they will be punished if they seek help.
Racism: Youth agreed that another important issue facing the youth is racism within schools. A student discusses how numbers have shown a decrease in racism, but it hasn’t gone down, people have started not reporting any offense due to a lack of action being taken. Youth discussed the “Wetip” class link extension to report such issues and how not many people use it due to lack of action. Students felt as though this behavior from students most likely stemmed from their parents.
Youth felt that suspensions aren’t very effective and greater action should be taken. This led to the topic about “Social Emotional learning”, youth agreed it hasn’t been very effective and the videos being shown are very surface level. Artificial Intelligence: Youth felt as though AI is beneficial when used responsibly, as a tool rather than the main source. Youth noticed that teachers have started giving assignments on paper to combat the issues of AI, which is not a popular solution. Youth discussed how AI can be misleading due to the misinformation it tells you.
Violent Behavior: Subtopics that were touched upon within our discussion were school fights, drug abuse/usage, and gang violence. Youth agreed the issue has created an unsafe environment and increases the tensions within schools. Youth feel as though there needs to be more preventative measures than punitive; schools need to stop demonizing drug addiction and create more resources to help students climb out of addiction. A support system like counseling or a resource center can help with prevention. Further action like more education on the long- term effects could also be effective.
Bullying: Major issues like cyberbullying and verbal harassment were discussed, as well as the punishment implemented for such acts. Cyber bullying has caused an anonymity of users and expect/inappropriate bullying on social media. Verbal harassment has affected the morale of students and created forms of hate speech (sexism, homophobia, racism, stereotypes). Youth talked about how data doesn’t accurately represent the great degree of incidents that occur. Youth came to the conclusion that suspensions aren’t as effective as they are desired to be and the more effective route is interactive lessons that will stick for students.
Facilitator Commissioner Chenya Kwon
Extracurricular Stress: Students explained that these activities lost their fun due to the pressure and impressions associated with them.
Substance Abuse: Students agreed these issues were the result of students finding relief from stresses in substances. Also, measures like school videos are ineffective but things like therapy would be a better solution. Lack Of Community: Finally, discussion around community revealed that students found communities in electives, clubs, and sports. Mental Health: A potential source for struggles to address mental health properly was a lack of education for parents and guardians. A solution that was discussed was to have more conversations with parents with students but also with other adults, such as counselors, because conversations help break stigma. City Safety: Students were asked if they felt safe in their city, and though for the most part the response was in agreement, there were some concerns that were raised. Some students had encountered violent incidents in public places (i.e. a bus) and saw that there was no plan in place/plan that was acted on by the adults in charge in the situation. Students determined that the best response was to have more conversations, but this time focused on asking “what would you do?” and to verbalize how to prepare and respond to incidents in public spaces. School Transportation: Transportation around school is often hectic, leading not to just traffic and accidents, as students explained. Measures such as drivers’ education courses at schools were proposed. The recommended driver’s education course at school in particular was well-received for how it could help lower-income students, those with learning disabilities, and overall increase driving motivation.
Adults At School: Students brought up counselors: for the most part, students had great experiences with their counselors, but others encountered counselors that were unintentionally discouraging students with their realism or assumptions about where students were headed.
Facilitator Commissioner Jane Staley
Transportation: Students agreed that one way our school system could be improved is by creating a better transportation system. Many students agreed that a more convenient bus system could be beneficial to youth throughout our city. In addition to preserving the environment, a new bus system would eliminate traffic and create a solution for families that have a hard time dropping their kids off at school. Also, some of the students stressed that their parents cannot pay for Drivers Education lessons. Their solution to this issue was that schools should offer Driver’s Education as an elective or as an after-school program, if we cannot implement a better bus system.
School System: Students agreed that the school system should offer more guidance on course curriculum especially for honors and AP classes. Students were advocating for teachers to teach curriculums based on the content rather than just learning the material to do well on a test. Even though it may be hard to regulate every teacher individually, students mentioned that a solution to this problem would improve mental health among our youth and motivate students to learn for more than just a grade.
Substance Abuse: Students discussed how many of the measures to stop substance abuse in our school systems are not effective. For example, many of the students suggested that the regulated hall passes do not prevent kids from using substances, and ultimately make other kids stressed out when they must use the bathroom. One solution that these students had was that schools should talk more about the health impacts that substance use has on teenagers.
Another solution that they came up with was that schools should help take kids out of environments that make them rely on substances.
Facilitator Commissioner Rheyah Gangadharan
Safe Community & Teen Violence: Youth have observed frequent fights, but the students stay with their own friends and don't get involved, feeling safe, schools have counselors and information on bullying, adults they can talk to, and more assemblies where leaders can come speak about these topics. Environmental: Youth would like programs for planting trees, spreading awareness about environmental protection, assemblies teaching younger students about global warming and climate impact, teaching students about the risks and consequences of littering. Youth observed increased trash at schools, students do trash pick-up if they litter but think the regulations should be stricter, putting up cameras or holding clean-ups, Sequoia has a “share box” to put food items from the school lunches they don’t want, and compost bins for food waste. Recreation: Youth spoke of more sports and dance competitions for teens, table tennis tables at the Teen Center, more trail routes in parks, interactive performers at concerts and things other than music and dance.
Social media: Youth discussed the downsides of blindly following social media.
Scamming was another area of concern. Youth suggested yearly assemblies at schools to teach students (especially younger ones) about how to identify scams and prevent damage, spreading awareness about specific kinds of online scams, the need to be self-aware about their screen time and set limits for themselves.
Other concerns were about influencers, using corroboration to check information online, and not being influenced by creators that do immoral activities. Communication: Youth agreed that more public speaking programs at school with an incentive to join, students should not be forced, teachers should be understanding and compassionate with students who are not as comfortable presenting to the class but should still help them do it.
Facilitator Commissioner Alex Lee
Education: This group discussed problems and possible solutions to how schools can better equip students with education regarding the rapidly developing modern world. Everyone agreed on the importance of having and taking certain classes that help with a student’s career or goals. The students further elaborated by stating that there is a supposed lack of awareness for classes present in schools due to improper details provided by the schools. Furthermore, students discussed the importance of having overall life lessons such as financial classes to help kids be better suited for life. Everyone agreed for the first discussion to be about the transition from 8th to 9th grade as everyone in the group was in 9th grade. There, students discussed the importance of encouraging more social interaction between newer students and improving information regarding classes, so scheduling is not a “blind pick and choose process”. Students then talked about the problems with accessibility to counselors and other on-campus roles that could be improved such as the college and career centers. Finally, the students conversed about smaller issues like being incentivized for school, distractions, and having funds be allocated to classes of their choosing.
The City’s Role & Funding Sources: During the discussions, the students mainly discussed three topics: the city’s role in helping students, funding, and environmental questions. Foremost, both leaders provided information such as programs, transportation, nutrition, etc. to the students. The students all agreed upon the importance of having more entertainment for students within the city.
Secondly, the students had questions regarding how the city receives the funding it gets.
Environmental: The students discussed current environmental sustainability goals with a focus on switching to renewable energy being equitable for all. They also discussed the environment of our city by first talking about waste in their schools. Everyone agreed that nutrition requirements, regulations, and having unnecessary single-use items were some of the most important and key contributors to waste in school. Also, other than waste, the youth agreed that a shift from paper to more computer-based learning can help with waste created in schools. Ultimately, they agreed that sustainability should be of utmost importance for the city’s environment and that there should be better eco-friendly transportation systems, more awareness of the city’s green spaces, and the creation of community/school gardens.
Substance Abuse: Foremost, the students agreed to delve into what incentivizes substance usage and came up with answers such as peer pressure, social perception, and stress relief. They said that it was important to solve these issues before tackling substance use as a problem. However, everyone agreed that certain problems such as substance abuse caused by mental issues are harder to solve due to their complexity and difference in severity such as family issues, coping methods, or negative exposure to social media. Some solutions the youth came up with were to increase understanding and knowledge of substance abuse, decrease accessibility, and establish discipline and help for those affected by substance abuse. They concluded that it was important to have solutions that make them care rather than fear.
Facilitator Commissioner Mia Oscanoa
Substance Abuse: In modern times, youth are susceptible to dying from taking substances. It occurs even in Middle School. There’s too much access to it. The consequences that come with getting caught with substance don’t affect them.
There’s a “I’m cool” mentality that prompts youths to use it. Substance abuse has been a consistent issue through the ages. Health class during freshman year was supposed to be the educational pathway to stop substance abuse. The next step could possibly be educating parents. It’s not necessarily criminal activity because the culture of it is evolving. The culture of it always comes back and it’s persistent.
To try and solve this problem the focus should be shifted to how to get these students help. One of the ways to start helping those suffering from substance- abuse at a school age is to tailor the education of drugs to widely used drugs. Such as weed and vapes. As of now there’s education of drugs, but drugs that aren’t as accessible. The drugs being learned about are drugs like heroin and meth that aren’t drugs that students in school are going to have access to. Although it is still important to educate students on those types of drugs, the focus should be shifted to more commonly used drugs (weed, vapes, etc.). Another solution to the drug problem is to start incorporating rehabilitation efforts instead of “consequences” for getting caught with substances. As well as, providing resources and advertising them. Resources such as how to get help that could be incorporated into therapeutic centers at school sites. Finally, an implementation of preventative measures should be employed in extreme cases with specific students that get caught with drugs and are known to consistently abuse drugs. The group focused on problems largely related to the student body as it directly impacts them. Having the option to speak with CVUSD Board Members allowed them to facilitate this conversation in a way they felt most comfortable with in hopes that something could be done. Something needs to be done about these issues that have been seen to be a consistent problem among all school sites, ages, and its consistency over the decades of schooling. Furthermore, with ever-evolving technology, something also needs to be done on how to intertwine technology and schooling in a healthy way. Not to heavily rely on it and not be able to think for oneself, but to advance knowledge and to co-exist with technology.
Teen Center: There’s been a cultural change in the current youth. Youths don’t need to go somewhere physically to hang out with one another. However, it is still largely utilized for its basketball facilities.
Housing: Thousand Oaks went through a long era of building no housing. Why? We did not want to lose the quality of life here; an opinion is that Thousand Oaks went too far in the direction of building no houses, this city has only become very unaffordable due to supply and demand.
Technology: There’s the example of dense areas that operate like mini-cities or suburban areas. Thousand Oaks started with around a population of 20,000 residents. There used to be a lot of supply and low demand. With the introduction of new companies, there are now more job opportunities, which led to the demand for housing to increase. Additionally, population and school enrollment are declining due to affordability. So, how do we maintain the local economy? This is an important question because essentially, we’re heading into being a retirement community. Cell phone usage/social media addiction is a problem. People are spending more time on their phone than on their schoolwork. There should be education given on the effects of cell phone usage and how to have a healthy relationship with a phone. Banning phones has proven ineffective, aren’t people just not going to pay attention if they don’t want to? Taking phones for class might be a solution to this phone addiction problem. Youth found that the educational system needs to teach people how to think and not what to think for a more promising future. Additionally, with the introduction of AI usage, there needs to be a way to co-exist with AI without using it as a crutch. Development for kids is still an important concept we, as a society, need to keep. Therefore, it’s important that we incorporate technology that’s evolving in a healthy way that still allows for children to learn and to like to learn.
Summary of Facilitator Reports
A summary of the above facilitator reports reveals that the main themes for summit outcomes are:
Support and encourage mental health and social skills, including access to mental health services and behavioral health supports.
Expand community activities and events that appeal to youth. Increase efforts made to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion—specifically as they relate to housing, affordability, homelessness, staff training, and education. Action to reduce waste in schools with implementation of environmental literacy programs and effective composting/recycling.
Increase in affordable and accessible transportation for youth in the city. Expand academic and study supports to students as the reintegrate into the classroom and adjust to learning loss from quarantine.
Summary of Youth Evaluations
At the end of the summit, all youth were asked to complete an evaluation of the event.
Here's a summary of what the Youth said:
“It really allowed me to discuss issues I found important with city leaders and witness their passion for their work.“
“I feel more informed about the City and other organizations. I am very happy to know my voice is valued."
"It made me realize how much we had to improve on, but also how much we are doing to improve the community."
"It made me realize that everyone in Thousand Oaks is working towards a better future."
"It showed me the insider perspective of some of the leadership roles and opportunities in our local government."
"I feel more connected and knowledgeable about the City." "It helped me feel motivated and more connected with like-minded youth."
NEXT STEPS
The Youth Leadership Summit was a great success bringing together leaders and youth to discuss community topics important to youth. There were a lot of critical conversations that took place. The Youth Commission recognizes that not all the topics that were discussed are under the purview of the City. Since the Youth Commission is unable to address all the topics brought up in the Summit, it is important to document these discussions and work collaboratively with community agencies to ensure progress is being made to achieve the goals and all community agencies are aware of the youth feedback. The Youth Commission recommends these next steps:
Youth Commission to use the information contained in this report to set their 2024- 25 meeting priorities and guest speaker calendar.
Youth Commission to make the community aware of the discoveries and summary of outcomes from the 2024 Youth Leadership Summit through outreach and presentations to the Conejo Valley Unified School District, the Conejo Recreation and Park District, and other relevant youth agencies.
When possible and applicable, the Youth Commission will work with community agencies to advise on issues related to youth and collaborate to ensure that solutions are implemented.
At the end of the year, the Youth Commission will report on the progress of the implementation to City Council.
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