Chad Blair
Honolulu Civil Beat
Excerpt:
The youth commission would be an opportunity for us to take youth civic engagement to the next level and for us youth to have meaningful and impactful real-life experience in the governmental process,” testified Chee, who represents a group called the Hawaii Youth Climate Coalition.
Similarly, Perry Arrasmith, a recent college and local public school graduate (Harvard College ’20, ʻAiea High School ’16), said in written testimony, “I recognize that the island’s future is my future. More than any other demographic group, I argue that Oahu’s youth will be most impacted by those decisions facing Honolulu County’s leaders in the present-day. It is certain that many of us will call Oahu home for the next half-century or more.”
Diversity was important to several testifiers, including Jun Shin, a junior at the University of Hawaiʻi Manoa and a member of Young Progressives Demanding Action. Shin recommended that the commission include “underserved and disenfranchised communities such as Native Hawaiians and Micronesians,” and to include male and female youth who have been houseless, involved in the criminal justice system and in foster care.