Naperville planning to hear youth voices

Young people soon may have a new way to get involved with the city of Naperville.

City staff members are drawing up plans for a possible youth council or task force that could give a formal way for young people to voice their concerns and priorities to elected officials.

The idea is not to create a body so official it must be bound by rules of the Open Meetings Act, with agendas and minutes and set schedules. Instead, council member Benny White said, the purpose is to make sure youth are included in a flexible, yet vetted, way.

“I think it's a huge voice that we just haven't heard,” White said during a virtual council meeting this week.

Especially since protests started in late May about police brutality and racism, White said, he's realized young people do not feel as though their thoughts are heard.

Others on the council also said they would value hearing more directly in an organized way from high school students through a new city group.

“It's assembling a platform for our youth to be able to meet and to share ideas,” Mayor Steve Chirico said. “And then when there's something pressing enough to bring to us, they can do it collectively. I think that would be a powerful tool for them and for us.”

Young people could bring forward details from their lives, such as what they experience with vaping or marijuana or race, council member Theresa Sullivan said.

The group could be established as a subset of the new human relations commission the city plans to form or under the umbrella of the grassroots group Naperville Neighbors United. But White said establishing the group under the city's purview gives it a deserved boost of credibility and legitimacy.

City Manager Doug Krieger said staff members will discuss council direction about a future youth council and then bring forward next steps.