Youth Advocacy

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Advocacy Training: Centering Youth Voices

Kid City focuses on cultivating youth leaders who leverage their lived and community experiences to uplift South and Central Los Angeles through their civic engagement.

After attending field trips, documentary film screenings, and community cultural events, students are encouraged to critically reflect on their lived experiences and their community’s current state from an asset-based lens.

With advocacy and education partners in the policy space, interested Kid City students participate in:

  • Focus Groups and Listening Sessions with high school and college students in which students share perspectives and challenges experienced in state college application processes, LAUSD K-12 public schools, and 2- and 4-year higher education institutions.

  • Trainings for students on know-your-rights, storytelling for advocacy, and understanding local and state policymaking processes

  • Student meetings with their respective legislative representatives to put a face to the higher education policies affecting first-generation students and their families.

Past Successes

  • As part of the College for All Coalition in 2025, Kid City students met with policymakers to share the experiences of first-generation students in mixed status families and advocate for their access to state financial aid.

  • Former Program Director Kim Fabian and a student spoke with NPR to highlight issues with the 2024-25 #BetterFAFSA rollout to highlight the important role direct-service organizations, including Kid City, play in responding and helping students overcome systemic issues to complete their financial aid application and ultimately attend college in the fall.

  • In 2023-24, Kid City students completed a youth participatory action research study—started and led by students—in which they found that out more than 50% of 100+ high school peers surveyed in Spring 2024 were still forgoing mental healthcare access and resources because of the stigma it carries within the Latinx community. As a result, students recommended that a youth mental health campaign to promote access and de-stigmatize therapy and mental health.

    • Students also had mental health resource information and wellness activities shared at Kid City’s annual Splash of LA community arts festival for 500+ youth and families!

Advocacy Partners

Kid City is proud to engage its students in advocacy in partnership with:

  • Alliance for a Better Community

  • College for All Coalition

  • Campaign for College Opportunity

  • EdTrust-West CORE Collective

  • Great Public Schools Now

  • Southern California College Attainment Network