Our group has a commitment to engaging in dialogue about global issues with fellow youth. We work to create an awareness of global issues in our peers that will cause them to think about, discuss, and act upon their reactions to current events with conviction and interest. 

An important aspect to this commitment is our installment of monthly youth-focused film nights.  These film nights are open to all ages and focus on issues that affect youth in our world today.  The films are followed by discussion sessions in which attendees are encouraged to speak up about their reactions to the material presented.  Along with the film, we hand out a newsletter with stories, quotations, and information relating to the subject of the film.

Promoting awareness of the realities of military recruitment by providing local high school students with brochures that offer alternatives to traditional post-high school options is another one of our goals.  These brochures, provided by our local chapter of Veterans for Peace, offer options besides joining the military for those students who do not want to jump right into a four-year college. 

Youth Adelantando has also led a number of workshops with area youth in schools and at conferences focusing on various subjects.  One slideshow we have presented a number of times is called Learning to Sidestep Sweatshops: Conscientious Consumerism.  This presentation focuses on the realities and effects of free trade, how a person in our society can sidestep companies that promote free trade and sweatshop labor, and the ends that can be
accomplished by purchasing fairly made products. 

In 2006, five members of YA went on a delegation to PICA’s sister city of Carasque, El Salvador with various members of PICA through the organization U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities.  With information, experiences, and pictures gained from this trip, YA created a presentation about El Salvador focusing on the economic, social, and political realities of the country today and the history that created those realities.

We are always ready and willing to give another presentation with any new or pre-existing theme!