DC Youth Mayors, JT’A Freeman (right) & Keron Campbell (left) are representing the close to 20,000 Youth Leaders and Alumni that have participated in the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute. JT’A is a Senior at Bishop McNamara High, a member of the Lacrosse team, Co-Chair of Students Demand Action, an active member of Ebenezer United Methodist Church. Keron is a Senior at Archbishop Carroll High School, where he serves as President of the Student Government Association, he is an active member of the Gospel Ark Temple.
The 2 Youth Mayors represent DC Youth and help to elevate their voices on a number of issues that affect them. Such as, Violence Prevention and Sensible Gun Laws, Education Enhancement, DC Statehood, Voting Rights, including lowering the age to Vote in DC to 16, and Safe Passage for our Youth, to name a few.
The Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute has been at the planning table, organizing, and mobilization around securing the MLK Jr. National holiday and the DC holiday parade since the beginning. The alumni and youth leaders have been inspired to help keep alive and push the legacy and lesson of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Marion Barry created the Youth Leadership Institute because of his civil rights engagement and the lessons he learned from that. Forty years ago, he created this program to afford the youth of these generations of young people in the District of Columbia the opportunity to obtain interpersonal, teambuilding, leadership, community, and civic engagement skills. His vision was to create a cadre of young people who would matriculate in society and become leaders in their home, careers, community, and the world as whole.