Mooresville Youth Council begins plans to revitalize parks

The Mooresville Youth Council is working to revitalize community parks after making an action plan at a February meeting.

Mooresville Youth Council members, YES! staff, youth council coordinator Ryan Jones and Randy Welch, Duke Energy district manager/Courtesy of Katherine Randall

At the meeting, high school students who are staff members of Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) trained them about how to work with policymakers, public speaking and community engagement. (YES! received a $25,000 grant from Duke Energy to train other youth around the state.)

The youth council of about 20 students wants to get more young people active in Mooresville's parks. They plan to take an inventory of what the parks currently offer and will collect ideas from peers about how to attract more young people to the parks. Then the council will present a proposal to Mayor Miles Atkins and the Mooresville Town Council about how to expand or improve the parks.

Mayor Atkins has their support. In a release, he said the council's voice is important and that he's excited about their new project.