PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Millennials in Philadelphia are speaking up on policy and legislation, and city government is listening. One group that has the ear of Mayor Jim Kenney is the city’s Millennial Advisory Committee.
The Mayor’s Office of Youth Engagement formed the committee in 2017 to give forward-thinking, action-oriented millennials a voice with a direct line to city government.
Committee Vice Chair Sia McCabe says there are many items of concern: affordable housing, gun violence, equal pay and equality for all.
The city is progressing, Committee Chair Wallace Weaver said, but not everyone is benefiting from it.
“We see so much new development happening in this city, but for a lot of Black and brown folks, families that have been here for generations, they are not the ones seeing any of that development. They are the ones being pushed out," Weaver said.
City government has been responding to the group’s concerns, said Weaver, and they will continue to work with city leaders to make sure it’s not just talk.
“Right now we’re in the process of working with the Office of Youth Engagement, the Office of Public Engagement to build out some policy prescriptions, so that way we can present the mayor and the city with some concrete action items that we think will progress the city in the right way,” Weaver said.
Vice Chair Sia McCabe says there is a disparity in the way women and people of color are paid, and treated in corporate settings, so it’s important for emerging leaders to have a hand in making changes.
“Right now, we are the majority of the workforce,” McCabe said. “We span across all industries. We’re just a large population right now.”
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McCabe and Weaver say they want millennials throughout the city to know the group is accessible, and they want to hear all concerns. They say that if the city continues to give a voice to their Committee and groups like them, change will come.
“We want people to know who we are and that we are here to provide a voice platform and access to the powers that be so we can make some change,” McCabe said.
The next project coming up for the committee is planning for Juneteenth programming.
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