Mayor’s Youth Summit 2024 a starting point for more youth-centered events

I’m often skeptical of events that are meant to appeal to teens in big group settings, but this year’s Mayor’s Youth Summit made me pleasantly surprised.

On February 24th, 2024, Boston welcomed its Mayor’s Youth Summit back for the first time in 20 years. Following a week of other youth-targeted events held by the city, the summit was meant to give Boston’s young residents a space to share their thoughts about the city, ask questions, and, most importantly, have fun. I felt the event was carrying a lot of pressure. Could the summit meet its high standards? Or would it be another failed attempt of adults trying to relate to kids? 

After spending five hours at the event, I found myself presently surprised by my answer to those questions. 

Upon first arrival, the summit felt incredibly crowded. Nearly 200 teens were crowded by the door getting their tickets and coats checked. This appearance of size decreased a little as we spread out in a bigger space, but there was still clearly a good turnout. I later discovered it was a sold-out event with 300 tickets sold. 

We entered on the second floor, where all the booths from different organizations were set up. Though I wasn’t very excited for this part, having gotten flyers for groups I wasn’t interested in at several other festivals in the past, I ended up finding that the organizations represented here were actually really cool. With 11 resource stations available, there were a ton of opportunities for teens to find jobs or affinity groups and even more giving helpful information about scholarships and free college programs. Not the highlight of the summit by any means, but one of the better experiences most teens will have with this booth setup. 

After checking out these resources, I went downstairs to the main attractions. The room had five activity stations with multiple installations and a ton of fun activities including a snack station, a community mural that attendees had opportunities to fill in, several different photo booths, and classic favorite games like Mancala, Connect Four, and Uno. There was so much to do that it felt almost impossible to get bored and the room had such a high energy with everyone having fun. 

On the third floor, things were just as eventful but a lot more chill. The Mattapan Art Project brought a ton of cool activities like button making, knitting and crocheting, and jewelry making that kept everyone very occupied and invested while getting to calm down and get away from the hustle of the main part of the summit. I’m not a huge fan of crafts but I ended up having so much fun beading; it made me think jewelry making might be a hobby I could have more fun with and I’m so glad that I, and other teens, got to have the opportunity to try these activities. 

The highlight of the summit was the entertainment and speakers and those definitely didn’t disappoint. All the performers were so talented and good at interacting with the audience. It was so cool to see Boston’s local talent getting their spotlight. All the guest speakers were open to feedback too and made sure to give teens just as much time to ask them questions as they did talking themselves. Definitely a perfect format to make us feel involved in our community and engage with civil services in a new way. 

Overall, there was so much to do and I had so much fun trying all of it out. I’m definitely hoping to attend this summit next year and I’d encourage any other teens in Boston to get some friends and do the same. I’m so glad they brought this back and hope that the positive reception from this year can inspire the city to develop it even more and see how important youth-centered events are in the future.