This document summarizes the structure and work of the Multnomah Youth Commission (MYC). The MYC is the official youth policy body for Multnomah County and Portland, Oregon, made up of 42 youth ages 13-21. It has several committees focused on issues like education, sustainability, and violence prevention. The sustainability committee has worked since 2007 to expand the YouthPass program, which provides free transit passes to high school students. Through a youth-adult partnership model, the MYC used a youth participatory action research process to develop policy recommendations to address inequitable access to transit. This included community forums, data analysis with university partners, and a youth summit. The MYC continues working on transit justice and active

2. Agenda
Introductions
Icebreaker
MYC Structure
Policy Development
Seattle and Future Steps

3. Stand Up/ Sit Down

4. MYC Structure

5. Multnomah Youth Commission
• Official Youth Policy body for Multnomah County and City of Portland, OR
• Up to 42 youth ages 13-21
• Our Bill of Rights: Children+Youth = official document; guides policy work

6. Our Committees
• Education/Youth Voice
• Sustainability
• Youth Against Violence

7. Sustainability
• Focused on YouthPass since 2007
• Guided by articles II and VI of BOR
Children+Youth; access to
education, extracurricular activities,
and recreational activities

8. YouthPass
• Free transit pass during school
year for Portland Public School
District high school
students (14,000)
• Funded
• 1/3 Portland public schools
• 1/3 City of Portland
• 1/3 TriMet (Regional transit service)
• 6 Districts in Portland/Multnomah County- only 1 has
YouthPass

9. Youth-Adult Partnership
• A group of youth and adults working together on
important community issues
• Assumes youth have the right and capacity to
participate in decisions that impact their lives
• Assumes mutual learning between youth and adults

10. Partnerships and Work Model
MYC
OPAL PSU
CAPSTONE

11. Policy Development through YPAR
1. Identify Problem
2. Research
3. Analyze
4. Action

12. Policy Development through YPAR
1. Identify Problem: Youth don’t have equitable
access to transit throughout the city
2. Research: Focus groups to find out more about
their issues
3. Analyze: CAPSTONE- finding common themes
4. Action: Policy recommendations and summit

13. Transit Justice Policy Recommendations
Equity and Empowerment Lens for Policy Making
by TriMet
Fares
Policing
Service / Routes
Youth Safety

14. Outcomes and Current Work
First summit
 Policy Recommendations
Second Summit
CAPSTONE> further data collection and analysis
Elected officials/Community leaders
Larger YouthPass campaign

15. Transit Justice and Active Transportation
• 2014-15 – Deepening work w/ BTA and SRTS
• Goal into future: Build a stronger relationship in our
region between TJ work and active transportation
work in order to support each other’s efforts.
• National Youth Bike Summit- Seattle Feb 2015

16. Youth Bike Summit –Seattle WA
• MYC, BTA, SRTS and CCC went on a road trip
• We presented workshops on transit justice 101 and
advocating for what you want
• Exposed ourselves to the bike activist world to see
where we intersected
and how we could
support each other

17. Next Steps
• To be determined…

18. Adriana Rangel-Ponce and Lashawn McCarthy