International Congress of Youth Voices

On August 3-5, 2018, almost 100 young people from around the world gathered in San Francisco for a life-changing weekend of writing, relationship-building, inspiration and activism. They came from Syria, Stockholm, Puerto Rico, and Zambia. They came from Hong Kong, Toronto and Kalamazoo. And they got to meet guests including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, Jose Antonio Vargas, and the legendary Congressman John Lewis.

To assemble this extraordinary group of teen delegates, we asked writing centers around the world — all under this new umbrella of the International Alliance of Youth Writing Centers (IAYWC) — to nominate two students who displayed exceptional writing ability and a drive to improve the world. These writing centers, from the Sydney Story Factory to Richmond Young Writers, sent their delegates, and the chemistry was explosive.

To learn much more about that weekend, please visit the International Congress of Youth Voices site.

We are currently planning the next Congress, which will take place in the summer of 2019. That gathering will double the number of student delegates, and will expand its duration from 3 days to 5. In the meantime, the Congress staff is working hard to increase teen voices in the media. We have already published the work of the Congress in The Guardian and will continue to place their work in media venues around the world. If you would like more information about that, or would like to invite delegate voices into your own media outlet, please contact us at hello@internationalcongressofyouthvoices.com