CCC’s Peer Trainers travel to schools and community-based organizations to teach their peers how to be effective advocates and leaders of change. Peer Trainers are a select group of YouthAction Members who have demonstrated exceptional commitment and public speaking skills, and wish to train other youth.
Peer Trainers use the skills they learned in YouthAction NYC to teach middle and high school students to become effective advocates. Throughout the school year, this small group of students meets to create the workshops they will lead to inspire other New York City youth to speak up about issues that affect them.
Peer Training sessions are on Tuesday afternoons from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at various locations throughout the city.
Peer Trainers workshops include
- Introduction to Advocacy
- The Steps to Effective Advocacy
- Advocacy Research
- How to Use Keeping Track of New York City’s Children
- Everyday Leadership
- Community Mapping
- Intro to New York City Government
- Understanding Budgets
- Democracy and Active Citizenship
If your school group or youth organization is interested in learning more about advocacy from our Peer Trainers, contact Laura Jankstrom, YouthAction NYC Program Coordinator, at ljankstrom@cccnewyork.org.
“I am humbled that I was given the chance to teach other students, like myself, about advocacy and civic engagement. Once the trainees understand the material, they have the tools they need to start their own campaigns, becoming a new generation of leaders in their communities. It’s like the age-old saying: Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
–Adam Rivera, Peer Trainer since 2011
