Mayor Lora: Empowering Passaic Youth
The Big Idea:
● The city of Passaic is dedicated to the health and safety of young adults and encourages them to take on leadership roles and responsibilities through a number of city-wide youth organizations and initiatives.
● Some of the most prominent youth organizations in Passaic include the United for Prevention in Passaic City Coalition (UPinPC) and the Passaic Youth Council, both of which work closely with Passaic Mayor Hector Lora.
● These organizations offer young people resources and education in their communities and help them build skills and confidence to become leaders in the community.
Background:
The Passaic City Coalition collaborated with Mayor Hector Lora to establish opportunities for Passaic youth to voice their concerns and plan out initiatives targeted to young people.
Those initiatives include providing safe beverage server training to liquor-licensed establishments, collaborating with organizations to provide substance abuse education and resources to families, and leading youth drug-prevention campaigns in the community.
Mayor Lora also helped establish the Passaic Youth Council to empower and encourage youth participation in community service projects, such as community clean-ups, help them with personal growth, and support their understanding of key issues affecting their community and the world, such as climate change.
By the Numbers:
The city of Passaic has a school population of 15,000 students.
Their Take:
Mayor Hector C. Lora
“I formed a Passaic Youth Council made up of young leaders from all over our city and from different schools and grades. Among the top issues that come consistently are environmental concerns regarding climate change, green initiatives, and clean energy. Our youth, those leaders coming up fast behind us, those we intend to charge with leading our nation into the future want to see tangible evidence of our commitment to our planet, our children, and our future.”
