The purpose of the YMCA Youth & Government Program is to prepare participants for moral and political citizenship in local, state, or national government roles. YMCA Youth and Government provides guidance, training and an experience in the American democratic process through the form of state government. The YMCA Youth & Government Program is based upon the Y’s core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility and seeks to accomplish its purpose in the following ways:

• To provide guidance, training and experience in the theory and practice of determining public policy.

• To confirm the principles of democracy and promote moral courage in solving public questions.

• To develop the attitude that through collaborative action in the three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) people can improve their current situations.

• To reveal the importance of the freedoms set forth in the Bill of Rights and in State and Federal Constitutions.

• To show that an honest difference of opinion, with freedom to express it, is a healthy medium in which to attain personal dignity.

• To indicate that in our society judgments with respect to values and goals will rest with the members of that society.

The YMCA Youth & Government Program believes that only members of a society can improve that society and all citizens must be educated in the process of policy-making where emotions and feelings are tempered by reason and by fact.