Kitchen is a 24-year-old Prince George’s County community activist and ordained minister who is helping to form a nonprofit called Young Voices Institute. He’s also the executive vice president of the Young Democrats of Maryland and chairman of the Prince George’s County League of Young Black Voters. What can you tell me about Young Voices Institute?
Young Voices Institute will be a nonprofit organization to lobby for the interests of young people in the D.C. metropolitan area. It will be lobbying firm for young people.
What do you hope to accomplish with it?
I hope to take young people and give them the tools and connections to be professional in their lobbying ventures.
What is the biggest issue facing Prince George’s County youth these days?
I think the education system is the number one issue. And so what we want to do with the Young Voices Institute is allow them to be successful in lobbying for a better system throughout the county.
How concerned are you about the Prince George’s County school budget that plugs a $155 million shortfall with cuts to jobs and programs?
I am very concerned about the budget cuts that the schools are facing. I think that they are draconian across the board. More importantly, they are too student-centered; they do not affect the central office enough.
Tell me specifically what the group will do.
Our first goal will be to take the student board member of the [Prince George’s County Board of Education] and give that board member budgetary authority. The student board member in Prince George’s County has authority to vote on all issues before the board except for personnel and budgetary issues. And we believe that if the student board member has budgetary authority, that could help in [assuring] that budget [cuts] passed by the school board are not so student-centered as this budget is.
Alex Pappas
