By Theresa O’Connor

   The Tempe City Council is bustling with activity; council members are reviewing policy proposals, listening to community member’s concerns and discussing the well-being of Tempe amongst themselves

At the Tempe Public Library, members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission, or MYAC, are doing the same thing. Juniors Tamsin Hurlbut and Natalie Epperson and sophomore Kailana Williams are currently on the commission, which advises city departments on what is important to young people.

  Within MYAC, there are six positions: Chair, Vice Chair, Project Management Chair, Communications Chair, Record Chair and Treasurer. To hone in on their impact areas, the MYAC commissioners formed three subcommittees this year for the Unhoused Population, Environmental/Sustainability and Mental Health. 

   Tamsin created the Unhoused Population subcommittee. “I’ve done a lot of work with the homeless community in the last few years and I understood that my work got to the point where I was doing a lot on the ground but you can’t just approach issues from an on-the-ground level, Tamsin says, “So I decided that I wanted to do more work in policy to try to address the needs of those I cared about on the streets through a different perspective.”

   This year, MYAC also attended the Regional Unity Walk, hosted by the City of Tempe for the past 17 years. Tamsin explains it as a way “to gather a bunch of city departments, ethnic groups (and) corporations together to walk around the Tempe Town Lake to show solidarity with one another and to show that we respect each other as the unified front of Tempe.” 

   This year was the first time MYAC participated in the Unity Walk and as Project Management Chair, Tamsin helped lead surveys about community issues and invited nonprofits to the event, including the Aris Foundation for the homeless who had previous strife with the event. 

   Kailana says, “I really loved the Unity Walk because I could talk to other kids from other cities about what they’re doing with their mayor and what issues are important to them. We were able to discuss face to face the subcommittee topics that MYAC chose to focus on this year such as environmental sustainability and the unhoused population. These discussions helped show me the bigger picture concerning these issues and that many cities in Arizona combat the same problems.”

   For the rest of their term, the Tempe MYAC commissioners will conduct surveys within the Tempe Union High School District and TPA to hear personal experiences from students and make policy changes with city council members.    Applications for MYAC open in August. Students who are interested in working with their respective city councils to address the concerns of the youth and are looking at a career in public policy should get involved. Tamsin says, “I would encourage everyone to get involved with MYAC. It’s a super cool opportunity and it will help you understand municipal government, understand yourself better and it also looks really good on college applications. …You get to meet kids from all over Tempe.”