The Los Angeles City Council moved forward Wednesday with a plan to form a task force that would be charged with formulating a citywide youth development strategy. On a 12-0 vote, the council directed city staff to report back on options for creating the Executive Task Force on Youth Development, along with a comprehensive analysis of all the funding and programmatic ways the city supports youth.
The creation of a task force is supported by the Invest in Youth Coalition, which includes Legacy LA, LA Voice and the East Los Angeles Women’s Shelter. The coalition argues that other cities, including New York, San Francisco and Boston, have prioritized youth investment through the establishment of a youth development department which centralizes funding, but Los Angeles spreads resources across 26 different departments without an organized strategy.
