WIB Youth Council and the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council have partnered to convene the Youth Engagement Task Force to develop a countywide youth engagement plan. The goal of this effort is to identify best practices and opportunities for a countywide youth engagement effort that will increase the number of youth who are actively engaged in civic and community life and in matters that affect them.

In the City of Los Angeles, and in cities across the county of Los Angeles, hundreds of programs are directed at serving youth. There is, however, no plan to ensure that all of these programs are in some way connected to each other so that shared learning and synergy from these connections can strengthen the youth voice. There is also no plan to ensure that these programs are based on best practices and are achieving the results we are seeking. And there is no plan to enhance the support of these programs so that they are sustained.

Our plan is to engage in a planning process that will help us better define "youth engagement," learn about best practices, carry out an asset mapping effort of all existing youth-leadership/youth-engagement activities across the county, conduct youth focus groups so that they are driving this process, and develop an action plan that will ensure a network of strong youth engagement efforts across the county.