[ Upbeat Music ] - Student Voice, I believe is one of the fundamental reasons why schools exist.

We want to amplify those voices.

We want to give students those opportunities to be able to be problem solvers - In Santa Cruz County, a move to amplify student voices began in 2020.

That's when the County Office of Education established the Youth-Led Leadership Alliance or YLLA.

Its goal: unit teens across multiple schools for projects that matter to them.

- Youth Led Leadership Alliance really is, is about helping students develop the skills to be able to influence and impact their schools, their neighborhoods, their communities.

- I've definitely grown as a public speaker in the last few years gaining an appreciation for working with others.

- Ruben is part of the multilingual youth Taking Action, one of seven groups in the alliance that brings together young people with shared interests.

The groups focus on topics such as the environment, art, mental health and technology.

There's also a Black Student Uni [ speaking in spanish ] - Students in the Alliance often participate in a culminating activity, which invites the community to see their work.

At Soquel High School, five miles east of Santa Cruz, multilingual youth taking action has gathered families and friends for a world languages showcase to celebrate diverse languages and cultures.

Valeria and Ruben are MCing tonight elevating student voices while refining their own - At times in the past and kind of now people have been silenced for speaking other languages.

So this is like an opportunity to be able to do that proudly.

I have the opportunity to not only practice my Spanish speaking skills in public, but I also get to do it like at a larger audience since it is countywide.

- I grew up speaking as well as English.

I spoke French and Spanish, so language has always been a really important part of my identity.

I hope this showcase inspires people to really understand the power that learning languages and appreciating world languages has.

- We're a relatively small county.

We have been wanting to create more opportunities for students, especially students who come from families that live in poverty, students who are language learners, immigrant students.

We wanted to make sure that those students have opportunities to be able to participate and develop that sense of belonging.

- Organizers say that sense of belonging is at the core of how the alliance is structured.

Unlike many school clubs, students in YLLA groups share their leadership positions.

- One of our philosophies is distributive leadership, and which means that we have rotations for different students who are participating in in different projects.

They actually have to determine who's responsible for what.

- Another group in the alliance, the Queer Student Union tackles the challenges facing lgbtq plus youth.

They also foster safe and inclusive spaces at Santa Cruz County schools.

- I look forward to collaborating with anyone that I can and building connections.

- They've traveled to the state's capitol for advocacy day, an opportunity to hone their leadership skills and advocate for the dignity of the queer community.

Members, Sloane and Alex are meeting with legislators and their staff about bills that impact queer individuals in California.

Earlier in the day, Alex represented queer youth as the only student speaker at a press conference of about 300 advocates.

- Schools need to protect LGBTQ youth especially right now, and ensure that they don't have to worry about being taunted and bullied in classrooms, bathrooms, and in the halls.

I can't vote so not yet at least.

So being able to make these changes, the only way I know how, being able to advocate for my queer and trans siblings so that they know they're heard and hopefully making change.

So that for me and for the rest of us, it's more accepting in schools - SB 59, I think that this is extremely important, especially for queer youth.

I can make change statewide if I want to with QSU and the ability that it gives me to make real change and it doesn't feel performative at all.

It feels like very real.

- We don't tell the students as part of our work as mentors and supporters.

This is we've, we've decided this is what you need to be focusing on.

It really comes from them.

- Educators in Santa Cruz County believe these types of alliances benefit smaller counties where districts can combine their resources to provide important options and opportunities by and for more students.

- The idea of contributing and taking, taking your identities and things that are important to you and actually sharing them with the community is something very valuable.

- There's amazing individuals on the team that give you these tools to make real change as a really young person