DENVER — The City of Denver knows it's going to have to make some changes to get more kids involved in shaping the city, which could include paying them.
The Mayor’s Youth Commission knows it's facing a diversity problem.
Members of the Office of Children’s Affairs said they got enough feedback from multiple parties they’ve now gone to Denver City Council to ask if they can start paying their youth commissioners. Rules right now don’t allow that.
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Rhett Gutierrez, with the Office of Children’s Affairs, knows not everyone is in a place to volunteer but might be able to help while being compensated. He hopes this will bring in representation from across the city and across socio-economic levels.
Anya Sharma is one of the current commissioners who shared the commission works on everything from mental health resources to job fairs.
“It's important for youth to have their voice and help create creative ideas to help solve these problems that are literally affecting them,” Sharma said. “It's a lot more valuable when you have youth input on these youth problems as well, because the best input is from the source itself, and that source is youth here in Denver.”
She also spoke to the critical work being missed by not having the whole city represented.
“Everyone's so unique here, and everyone's going through unique situations as well,” she said. “I think it's really important to have a variety of opinions because it really helps kind of bring all of our youth together, and it helps fix problems that we face.”
Gutierrez said the office is considering different pay options, like a stipend or at least paying minimum wage, with the money initially coming from the Office of Children’s Affairs if it's approved.
Then, the city might look to work with other partners.
There could be a final decision by city council by the end of the month.
