Youth Leadership

Models

MyPath Advocates & Innovators is a leadership development and advocacy program for high school youth. A youth leadership and economic justice program, MyPath Youth Leadership program trains and supports youth from low-income communities to become active participants and leaders in the financial justice movement, helping to (re)shape the landscape of opportunity for themselves and their communities.

Become a MyPath Advocate

MyPath recruits San Francisco/Bay Area high school youth every summer to join our year-long program from July of the current year to June of the following year. If you are interested in building your leadership skills and making a difference in your community, please contact our Youth Engagement Manager, Angely “Angie” Miranda, at [email protected].

Application for the 2021-2022 school year has closed. We will begin enrollment for the next cohort in March or April 2022.

MyPath Advocates 

MyPath Advocates lead advocacy projects to encourage financial institutions and regulatory institutions to better serve youth and young adults through offering safe, quality youth-owned financial products. Additionally, MyPath Advocates provide peer-to-peer workshops at local youth organizations and high schools regarding the dangers of predatory financial services and the connection between accessing good products and upward mobility.

Impact

  • In 2011, MyPath youth organized a project to map predatory financial services in low-income communities in San Francisco, and generated recommendations for city government and financial institutions to expand quality financial services for youth and their families.
  • In 2011, MyPath youth leaders addressed the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) on the need for youth-friendly accounts and advocating for financial inclusion for low-income communities of color in San Francisco. DCYF has since partner with MyPath to connect youth in workforce programs to youth-friendly checking and saving accounts.
  • In 2013, youth leaders from MyPath and the Youth Leadership Institute organized and launched the First Annual School for Economic Justice for Bay Area youth to mobilize their communities to organize policies and campaigns addressing financial inclusion.
  • In 2015, MyPath Advocates and Innovators trained over 400 youth peers in over a dozen community agencies and schools.
  • MyPath Advocates have led campaigns in San Francisco and supported efforts in San Mateo and Oakland to combat payday lenders and to advocate for increased access to quality financial services for low-income youth and families.
  • In 2016, MyPath youth delegates met with Jacob Lew, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and Richard Cordray, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Youth leaders advocated for youth financial inclusion by sharing the barriers they experienced to access fair and safe banking and the impact these barriers have on working youth from low-income communities.