Unlike some other youth advisory councils, the LYAC is focused on equipping its youth councillors, who are elected via city-wide elections on an annual basis, with the training and the resources they need to effectively engage in local politics. Rather than holding formal meetings that mirror the agenda of London’s city council and developing common positions on those issues, the youth councillors discuss issues of concern to young people and work individually and together to advocate on those issues.

The output of their work is not press releases or position papers, but a cadre of engaged young people who are well-equipped to engage directly with city councillors, city staff and others involved in local politics.

Their approach seems to be working: in the most recent municipal election in London, past youth councillor Amir Farahi placed fourth in a highly competitive race in Ward 6 and received widespread admiration for a campaign focused on issues and ideas.

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the LYAC is its entrepreneurial spirit. Its founders see the council as a democracy lab of sorts, where new approaches and new ideas can be tested and refined. They retain what works well and don’t worry about moving on from ideas that don’t work out.

In a matter of just a few weeks, we worked with LYAC to design and build an election web site that would allow all candidates seeking election to the youth advisory council with a platform for their campaigns and the tools they need to run low cost online campaigns. Using NationBuilder, dozens of candidates were able to run independent campaigns using a common platform provided by LYAC.