Youth Advocacy Quotes

Give young people a greater voice. They are the future and they are much wiser than we give them credit for.

I'm known as a voice for a generation of people that don't have a voice.

One thing that I'd just remind young people of is that when John Lewis, who's a member of Congress today, defied George Wallace and led the march from Selma to Montgomery, he was 23 years old. Martin Luther King was the old man in the bunch, and he was 35, so young people need to know that they've always been an important part of our society, have always been at the forefront of pushing for a more just America, and we can't be successful without the impatience, the vigor that young people bring to the fight for social justice.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights supports youth reentry projects because my father cared deeply about children and young people involved in the juvenile justice system, part of his focus while serving as attorney general.

Let us acknowledge and celebrate what youth can do to build a safer, more just world. Let us strengthen our efforts to include young people in policies, programmes and decision-making processes that benefit their futures and ours.

Those who help a child help humanity with an immediateness which no other help given to human creature in any other stage of human life can possibly give again.

This is not politics... it's to protect the innocence of children.

I'll be working with kids for the rest of my life.

In the RFK Center's Speak Truth to Power program, we are working with schools across the United States and in countries like Italy, Cambodia and Sweden to turn every student into a defender.

We cannot continue to trade our children’s lives against the gun industry’s profits…. It is time to stop killing our children.

Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.

I am a small man who wants to do big things for small people.

Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives.

To criminally prosecute a child not old enough to go to the school prom makes no sense, you get much more cooperation from a victim if you give them a safe harbor, a place to live, job training, an education.

Young people were once considered relatively safe from HIV/AIDS. Today, their lives and futures are at risk throughout the world because of this disease. I believe it is young people throughout the world who offer us the greatest hope for defeating this deadly pandemic.

Youth is not wasted on the young, it is perpetrated on the young.

Since I became Secretary-General, five years ago, I have seen youth participate at the United Nations as never before.

I will not be deterred from my mission of helping kids in this country.

There is a tendency to dehumanize kids that commit crimes. The system is focused on punishment, not on rehabilitation. These kids are the most misunderstood and most cruelly treated.

Young people are going to go to someone, somewhere. And we had better see that that 'someone' is us.

When I tried to create a new political party, which I stressed that this is not my party. I believe very much that there has to be a revolution and this is a party for the young.

If adolescent pregnancy prevention is to become a priority, then our strategy, as advocates, must contain two key elements: civic engagement and education.

People say Malala's voice is being sold to the world. But I see it as Malala's voice reaching the world and resonating globally. You should think about what is behind Malala's voice. What is she saying? I am only talking about education, women's rights, and peace.

I'm intending to work on juvenile justice reform, sentencing reform, reentry, drug treatment, access to mental health care.

Robert F. Kennedy Juvenile Justice Collaborative was formed in 2009 to improve federal youth reentry policy through advocacy, coalition building, and giving voice to youth who are directly impacted by the justice system.