21st Century youth leaders debate bills at Mock Legislative Session in  Alabama State House.

For more than 15 consecutive years young people have experienced some of the challenges of preparing legislation and engaging in the process of passing or defeating the proposed bills through a Mock Legislative Session held at the Alabama State House in Montgomery.

The 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement (21C) sponsors this participatory learning experience for youth through its annual summer leadership camp.

This year’s summer conference was held at Tuskegee University and enrolled approximately 50 students from across the state.

The leadership training curricula included workshops on tracing African American history and contributions; cultivating a green environment; conflict resolution and the mock legislative session. 

The week long camp was held on Tuskegee’s campus with the mock legislative session taking place in the Chamber of the Alabama House of Representatives.

In preparing for the mock legisl tive session, the young people designed bills around issues that con-cern and affect them.

Prior to the session the young leaders held elections for governor, speaker of the house and other officials then they drafted legislation to debate on the floor of the House.

Some of the many students’ bills focused on; making cyber bullying a crime; providing for recall elections; criminalizing all abortions; requiring party switchers to first resign from office; requiring African American History be taught in schools; reducing the age in which someone gets a driver’s license; increasing the minimum wage; requiring a class in non-violence and conflict resolution prior to graduating from high school; establishing a committee to study the effects of slavery and need for reparations.

 The day-long session at the State House paired members of the Alabama Legislature, State House staff, lobbyists and media personnel with the youth participants. The professional volunteers mentored the youth as they experienced the process of introducing and debating bills.

Following the mock legislative session, the young people commented that they did not realize the concentration, pressure and stress that real legislators must endure.  “You’ve go to know your information; you’ve got to be prepared and determined or you will not get support for the bills you want to pass,” commented one student participant.

The 21C leaders concluded their session with a pledge to continue to prepare themselves as  community-focused leaders.

21C leaders and mentors close Mock Legislative Session with leadership pledge and song