A new city of Pittsburgh initiative will give high school students the chance to learn from public officials about the inner workings of local government.
Mayor Ed Gainey said the Youth Civic Leadership Academy, launched Tuesday, will train the next generation of city leaders.
“We want to take the process that each one of these kids right here remembers, and make them a part of a solution so that we stop looking at them as the problem,” Gainey said at a Heinz History Center kickoff event.
Students participating in the program will earn college credit and be paid an hourly wage for their work.
Each week, they will meet with a different representative of city government. The students will then work as a cohort to identify local problems and potential solutions, which they will later present to city leaders.
The academy is a partnership between the Community College of Allegheny County, the city’s workforce development board, the Heinz History Center and Youth Enrichment Services—a non-profit that works to provide educational and mentorship opportunities for at-risk youth.
Gainey said the course is part of the city’s efforts to address violence among youth by investing in their future.
“Our children didn’t create this culture of violence. They inherited it from my generation,” Gainey said. “But what they can do is they can change this culture.”
A previous iteration of the Youth Civic Leadership Academy existed in 2013.
