Non-profit Youth Empowerment Summit encourages teen advocacy [Video]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Hilltop based non-profit MY Project USA hosted its second annual Youth Empowerment Summit Friday.

All summer long young people in its summer program have been on a journey to become advocates in the community. The summit was a chance for the teens to show off their progress.

The young leaders designed and led the program themselves. Organization leaders said over the last few weeks the teenagers researched topics they are passionate about where they want to see change happen.

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They chose topics like guns and gang violence, substance abuse and gender equality. Some of them have personal stories to connect with the topic they chose.

“It fills my heart. I mean, it really, really warms my heart to see those kids who came just six weeks ago and didn’t want to take a picture of themselves. They were hiding their faces. They didn’t want to do anything,” …