California YMCA Youth & Government

The YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles

has officially launched as

the Center for Community Well-Being!

As the Center for Community Well-Being, the LA Y is deepening our commitment to solving our region’s systemic challenges to health and well-being, from social isolation to economic instability. We will continue to be the place where kids take their first swim lessons, for game-winning shots in pick-up basketball games, for summer camp memories, for staying active at any age, and for belonging.

We are also committed to doing our part to solve big challenges by responding to community needs – from providing emergency support to families devastated by wildfires, to leading a groundbreaking initiative to help tens of thousands of foster youth no matter where they live in LA County, to designing a wide range of services for the most vulnerable members of our region. Together, we will create a place where all can be well, do good, and lead change.

We look forward to welcoming over 2000 delegates from over 60 delegations from 16 Y Associations, 3 CA High Schools, and 1 independent organization for our upcoming 78th Model Legislature & Court (MLC). Recently, our Association Board of Directors had the opportunity to hear from our 78th Youth Governor, Violet Chin.

Violet Chin Addresses the Board of Managers

Dear Friends of the YMCA,

Hello! My name is Violet Chin, and I am proud to introduce myself as the newly elected 78th Youth Governor of California. Even now, as I have the honor of leading over 2,000 delegates in the YMCA’s Model Legislature & Court, I know my journey didn’t begin with politics—it began at my local YMCA, the Crowell Family YMCA (formerly the South Pasadena San Marino YMCA), where I grew up surrounded by kindness, support, and community.

The Y’s values shaped me into the leader I am today. As the Y focuses on community well-being, I’m reminded of the meaningful actions that led me to leadership.

I am reminded of the volunteers who made me feel at home at the Y. I am reminded of the staff who showed me kindness at every front desk. I am reminded of the advisors who cheer on every delegate, giving them the confidence to speak.

Thank you for supporting the community well-being that makes stories like mine possible. Thank you for supporting the place that made me a leader.

Best,

Violet Chin

78th Youth Governor of California

Annual MLC Program Lead Volunteer Retreat

30 Lead Volunteers from across the state convened in Los Angeles for our 78th MLC Program Lead Retreat. Together with Cal Y Y&G Staff and two guest facilitators, leaders of each program area worked to develop their curriculum for the year and refine their facilitation skills.

Volunteer With Us!

Volunteers are key to making our Y&G programs successful in helping to change the lives of so many teens across the state.

For more information email Megan Brennan.

MeganBrennan@ymcaLA.org

Constitutional Convention (Con Con) Continues to be a Favorite!

Every year, over 200 delegates enter a unique program area where hundreds of chairs form a circle around a central ‘speaker’s box’ with four closely spaced podiums facing each other. In this intimate setting, they collaborate to create a new California Constitution, discussing key values, drafting proposals, and debating them until they are passed.

Intended to be fast-paced and expose delegates to a broad range of ideas and viewpoints, Constitutional Convention (“Con Con”) urges delegates to ‘pursue truth rather than possess it.’ In other words, delegates are expected to remain as open-minded as possible and challenge their own assumptions. There are several features of the program area that are designed to further that end:

Delegates do not come into the weekend with a proposal, nor are they tied to a single idea.
Constitutional amendments are high-level-ideas and fuel debates regarding values and ideals rather than specific logistics.
By standing a few feet from their opposition during debate, delegates are forced to recognize the humanity behind every belief and the real-world experiences that often drive them. Delegates shake hands after speaking.

While Con Con’s structure is crucial in creating positive delegate outcomes, culture is equally important. Every year, a goal in the program area is to have every delegate speak at least once. Although this initiative begins with program staff, who keep a tally of every time a new delegate rises to speak, it is often the delegates themselves who take it to the finish line by persuading their peers to stand and speak for the first time. As the delegates will come to learn, every contribution is valuable to the group’s pursuit of truth, whether popular or not.

In starting a Constitution from scratch, delegates are forced to wrestle with some of the most basic principles of our society which we often take as given, like government structure and the rights afforded to the public. This blank slate offers an ideal setting to examine our current society and acts as a launch pad for the creation of a better one. In Con Con, delegates are emboldened to rethink society’s assumptions and come to consensus on a new ideal – one which lays at the delegates’ fingertips during the weekend, but can jump off the page in the years that follow.

Y&G’s talented and dedicated Co-Lead Volunteers are: Kian Farahdel and Tim Brice; both are Y&G Alumni!

Cal Y Y&G Board of Managers Sends Huge Thanks to Robert "Robbie" Abelon!

We give a huge thank you to Robbie Abelon for taking the helm as the initial Board of Managers Chair since joining the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles Association. In partnership with Mari Bassel, the Executive Director of California YMCA Youth & Government, Cal Y Y&G has been steadily rebuilding the infrastructure of our Y&G programs and growing participants each year since the end of the pandemic.

Robbie is a Y&G alumnus, Sacramento Central delegation advisor, and has been a member of our volunteer program staff for both Model Legislature & Court and our Model United Nations programs for years, he is currently our Lead Program Volunteer for the Office of Youth Governor. Robbie will continue on as a Board Member, for which we are truly grateful.

Welcome New Y&G Board Members

★ Emily Lara Fernandez, delegate ‘26 (EPIC-San Gabriel, YMCA of Orange County)

★ Luca Ramos, delegate ‘27 (Crowell Family YMCA, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles)

★ Molly Stout, 78th Youth Secretary of State ‘26 (Diablo Valley, YMCA of the East Bay)

★ Renu Dommeti, delegate ‘26 (Burbank YMCA, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles)

★ Jennifer Novak, Attorney, Law Office of Jennifer F. Novak, Y&G Alumna, Southern CA

Welcome Y&G Alumna, Ally Bahk, to the

Cal Y Y&G Staff

Ally Bahk comes to Cal Y Y&G as a former East Valley Family YMCA delegate who continued to volunteer with the Y into adulthood as a Director for Camp Whittle. Y&G was a transformative experience in her adolescence, so she is very excited to be the newest addition to the team. While a delegate, MLC helped lay the foundation for her interests in community welfare, social justice, and accessibility. In her spare time she enjoys animal welfare, advocating for foster youth, gardening, crafting, and grassroots fundraising. We’re excited to have Ally aboard! Welcome to Y&G, Ally!