This year’s LA2050 Youth Ambassador cohort was made up of 187 engaged young people, ages 14 to 24, representing neighborhoods all across Los Angeles County. Together they helped spread the word about voting in the LA2050 Grants Challenge to friends, family, and neighbors, and engaged 3,500+ voters.

After public voting closed in May, our team met with the Youth Ambassadors to celebrate their achievements. We reviewed the LA2050 Grants Challenge voting results, presented all Youth Ambassadors with a certificate of appreciation, raffled off prizes to our 50+ voter club, presented a prize to our video challenge winner, and celebrated the two participants that engaged the most voters.

The Youth Ambassadors shared and compared the different strategies that they used to obtain votes. Some of the tactics included: sharing the link with group chats of family and friends, creating original designs for social media, and presenting in their classrooms. The Youth Ambassadors also reported that the opportunity to share about voting gave them a meaningful chance to learn more about Los Angeles and about the philanthropic sector.

The two Youth Ambassadors with the most votes finished with an impressive 337 and 324 voters engaged each! As a part of their prize package, these two Youth Ambassadors each selected one organization from our Ideas Hub to donate $250 towards.

We are pleased to donate $250 towards Blind Children's Center on Helly's behalf. The Blind Children's Center fosters the development and education of children who are visually impaired in an inclusive, family-focused setting.

We are also donating $250 towards T.R.U.S.T. South LA on Grace's behalf. T.R.U.S.T. South LA works to stabilize the neighborhoods south of Downtown LA, where increased property values and rents have pushed out many long-term residents.

This is just the beginning for this year’s Youth Ambassadors. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with them and we are confident that their drive to make Los Angeles better for all will lead them to incredible futures. To that effect, we’ll be sending a quarterly newsletter to share internships, volunteer opportunities, scholarships, and other resources to support them.

A huge thank you to our 2024 LA2050 Youth Ambassador cohort!