When the mayor of Lakeway, Sandy Cox, entered the City Hall Chamber to meet with many of our Tune Into Life Teen (TILT) students, we realized a pivotal moment had arrived!
TILT members presented their background and history as well as their ideas for ways to raise community awareness and get more input from adolescents in Lakeway.
- Charlotte Horton spoke about the history of TILT.
- Jordan Scruggs spoke about the data from the YRBS Surveys.
- Luke Maxwell spoke about his experience as a peer leader and mentor.
- Olivia Carter & Charlotte H spoke about early ideas for the PSA.
- Trinity Sutherland spoke about the summer movie series ideas.
- Zoey spoke about model youth advisory boards for Mayor’s in other locales.
The group had an extended discussion about the role of social media and its effect on the mental health of adolescents. The Mayor showed interested in figuring out how to address this.
The group also discussed vaping among teens and the new local task force formed to address it; the Mayor was excited about what the kids had to say and suggested:
The Mayor agreed to review the information provided to her on the Youth Advisory Board (she’s thinking of calling it Junior City Council) and plans to move forward with that idea early next year.
The Mayor agreed to partner with TILT on the Summer Movie Series and Pop-Up ideas which TIL and TILT will share with the community for support and action in early 2020.
Finally the Mayor asked TILT kids to prioritize their “asks” of her. The group felt that the formation of a vehicle to have an ongoing conversation with the Mayor was most important. The Junior City Council was then first. The second issue was raising awareness among community members – making kids needs heard and validated.
