Downtown event inspires collaboration between St. Joseph youth and local government
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- The City of St. Joseph is seeking the input of local youth in an effort to promote civic engagement and explore new ways to problem solve in local government.
Leaders from various city departments and students from more than a dozen local schools took part in a revamped "Student in Government" event on Monday, an opportunity for students to engage with city leaders and those from other schools.
This year's event took on a new approach, shifting from the previous venue at City Hall to Mosaic Life Care's emPowerU facility Downtown, where students brainstormed ideas on community needs and offered potential solutions as a cohesive unit.
"We're learning about how we can make our community better," Genevieve, a student at St. Joseph Cathedral School, said. "Were seeing by 2040 what we can do to make St. Joseph a better place that people want to go to."
Genevie was one of nearly 90 students who participated in the event, along with students from all five St. Joseph high schools and all nine middle schools.
Some of the issues highlighted by students included trash on the streets, homelessness, modernizing businesses and using more modern forms of social media.
City Manager Mike Schumacher said utilizing more current forms of social media like Snapchat and Instagram is something that city can improve on.
"The gap (between age groups) can be bridged. As you guys probably know better than I do there are software platforms that will split between all the socials," Schumacher said. "What I took away from those comments was, 'OK, we need to do a better job of hitting all the different social media platforms. By doing that we're getting our message out as far and wide as we possibly can.'"
Schumacher also explained that while some of the ideas proposed may not be able to come to fruition, it is important to have the input and feedback from the younger audience -- potentially future city leaders -- who can shape the direction of St. Joseph.
"If you don't listen to these student councils and these kids, I think it translates to you've given up," Schumacher said. "We have not given up. It will take this entire community to address some of the issues put out there, one step at a time. There is no magic bullet to address illegal drug use or the type of violations and issues that certain populations create."
"That's a national issue. It's not just here in St. Joe, every city across America is facing it. That doesn't mean that we don't do our best to address locally, but it will take one community working together to make an impact."
Leaders from the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce like CEO Natalie Hawn were also in attendance to give remarks and insight to students as part of the event.
The hope going forward is to work with school administers to have sessions more frequently, including potentially meeting with students before or after school and at lunch breaks.
