Youth Opportunities Program

YOP strengthens the community through:

• Empowering youth
• Providing opportunities for youth
• Encouraging youth civic participation and volunteer work
• Advising city government

For more than 30 years, the city’s Youth Opportunities Program has empowered young people to find their voice, shape their community, and build skills that last a lifetime. YOP offers Boulder youth opportunities to impact their lives and the lives of their peers through outreach, representation of youth voice in local government, and community projects and initiatives.

While specific program offerings have changed over the years, since 1994 YOP has:

• Provided opportunities for City of Boulder youth to develop leadership skills and promote youth civic engagement through the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board.
• Honored more than 200 Outstanding Youth Volunteers for their service in the local community.
• Supported access to cultural, educational and recreational activities for more than 100,000 youths through an annual grant program.
• Funded youth-serving or -supporting programs in more than 150 schools and organizations.
• Compensated young people for contributing more than 55,000 hours of volunteer service to the community.
• Hosted students for paid internships with the City of Boulder to help youth develop leadership skills and promote youth civic engagement.

YOP offers Boulder youth opportunities to impact their own lives and those of other youth through peer outreach and representation of youth voice in local government and community projects and initiatives, and funding of individual and community grant.

YOP facilitates:

• Young people educating each other how to prevent risky behaviors.
• Youths finding their voices.
• Critical thinking, writing, interviewing and other professional skills

YOP serves as the convener and lead coordinator for the Boulder Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI), a partnership between the City of Boulder, Growing Up Boulder and UNICEF USA. Through the youth-centered CFCI process, the city and partner agencies planning for and implementing a Youth Action Plan with three priorities identified by youth: addressing bullying, improving safety and belonging, and enabling youth to share opinions with the city. With implementation of the Youth Action Plan, the city will be a UNICEF-designated Child Friendly City.

YOP does this work through the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board (YOAB), comprised of up to 16 teens who live in the City of Boulder.

Examples of YOAB projects include:

• Advising and contributing to city efforts towards recognition as a Child Friendly City through UNICEF-USA
• Contributing youth perspective to the master plans for Transportation, Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), Parks and Recreation and the Boulder Police Department.
• Administrating grants and funding to support organizations and events that serve youths, and individual compensation for volunteer services.

The city will not be hosting youth internships for 2026-27 and possibly beyond.

The YOP maintains a list of many different local civic engagement programs that middle or high school students can become involved in. Many of them tend to be longer-term commitments than the volunteer opportunities listed in the Youth Volunteer Information booklet, also published by the YOP, which contains a list of local youth volunteer opportunities organized by age.

The Outstanding Youth Volunteer Awards (OYVA) are a yearly gathering honoring the volunteer work of youth from the Boulder community. Award winners provided outstanding volunteer service to their neighborhoods, communities, schools, and/or agencies in Boulder. The OYVA award holds particular significance within the work YOAB does due to its unique nomination process, where community members nominate each other, fostering a strong sense of community engagement and recognition of youth achievements.