Young leaders from Dawson County High School recently attended the Georgia Youth Summit.  Held at Rock Eagle 4-H Center, delegates learned about issues affecting young people and how to partner with adults to make their community a better place to live. 

Those attending were: Rose Samples, Krista Barnicoat, Donnie Owen and Autumn Callahan.  The group was chaperoned by Ian Cowie, Dawson County 4-H agent.

The Youth Summit is supported by the Governor’s Georgia Rural Development Council. 

Council members on the final day participated in the group presentations.  The summit’s major objectives were to create awareness for young people of state/local issues; enhance youth-adult partnerships on the local level and equip youth to become active locally in the betterment of their community.

The first day students learned about four issues affecting young people in Georgia: safety, economic development, health and education.  Speakers discussed the challenges in these areas with the near 750 delegates.

Over the next day and a half, county groups developed action plans to be carried out in one of the study areas. The Dawson County group felt it was important to address a safety issue in the county.

The final day of the summit, county teams presented their plans. The Dawson County delegates presented their idea to develop an awareness program about texting while driving for the student body at the high school. 

Local support came from the Dawson County Mentoring Program and the Dawson County Extension Service.