Quien Somos/Who We Are

The Latino Youth Leadership Council is a movement of youth in the District of Columbia that organizes and mobilizes to assess, develop, and implement opportunities and alternatives for Latino students in DCPS and other educational systems in the District of Columbia. 

In Phase I of the LYLC development youth learned the basics of organizing and mobilizing and through conferences, and youth summits, reached hundreds of community members exposing them to various topics that affect Latino youth in our city and our nation and encouraging them to "along side of us" get involved in supporting and advocating for and with our youth an inspiring and strategic movement that addresses the moral imperative of our times: "defining who we are as a nation of immigrants". 

In Phase II  members of LYLC wrote and illustrated an amazingly beautiful and powerful graphic memoir, named Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth. The book was made possible through the tremendous determination and bravery of 16 recently arrived Latino immigrant youth and successful collaborations with Shout Mouse Press. The book was a year in the making, beginning with a month-long workshop led by Shout Mouse and a team of teaching artists in summer 2017. The youth authors share their personal immigration experiences, conveying them through text and comic-style dialogue and illustrations. The youth are so proud that through their illustrated stories, they are bringing awareness to the deep, personal impact immigration journeys have on youth and their families. Voces Sin Fronteras, inspires, motivates, and educates its readers, and changes the narrative about America's immigrants. LYLC has presented their book at public speaking engagements throughout the greater DC region and beyond. 

Voces Sin Fronteras is LYLC's advocacy platform giving youth a space and place to have a voice in defining themselves as Latino Immigrant Youth. It is also LYLC's fund-raising tool that sustains direct support to LYLC activities, vision, and mission. We hope to use the proceeds from book sales to help our peers in our community and to establish a LYLC Scholarship Fund that will help students like us who have had a difficult time setting foot on a college campus due to minuscule availability and access to traditional scholarships.  If you are moved by our journey and stories, we invite you to get a copy of our book directly from LYLC that is signed by all the authors for a small starting donation of $50 (you can donate as much as you desire to our LYLC Scholarship Fund). It is the only place you will get a signed copy of Voces Sin Fronteras.  Email us at lylcdc@gmail.com to get your copy and if you are interested in supporting our LYLC Scholarship Fund.

We also hope to launch the LYLC Motivational Youth Speakers Bureau in Fall 2018 so stay tuned!

This Summer through Phase III, a group of 21 amazing Latino youth brings you beautiful and powerful ideas, feelings, stories, lives in the form of Bilingual Blogs (Spanish and English).  Hope you enjoy them!

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