Announcing the Youth Bike Summit 2017
We are thrilled to announce that Youth Bike Summit 2017 will take place October 6-8, 2017 in Arlington, VA / Washington, DC and will be hosted by Phoenix Bikes!
The Youth Bike Summit is a three-day conference geared toward youth, bikes, education, advocacy, and leadership. People from different disciplines, backgrounds, and ages gather together to learn, share, network, and explore how bicycling can be a catalyst for positive social change.
There will be keynote speakers, hands-on workshops, panel presentations (many led by youth), and many other opportunities for youth and adults to exchange ideas about what biking can mean for children, teens, families, schools, communities, and for our planet. This momentous national event also offers a dynamic, engaging, and thought-provoking visioning session where youth and adults working in communities near and far can articulate, share, and develop new ideas to bring back to one's local community. By creating a space where voices of all bicyclists can be heard, the Youth Bike Summit fosters an inclusive national dialogue that addresses the issues, rights, and concerns of all bicyclists.
Part of what makes the seventh annual Youth Bike Summit so meaningful is that it's coming full circle, right back to where it all started. In March 2010, Kimberly White and Kristi Nanco, two bike-loving high school interns from Recycle-A-Bicycle's Earn-A-Bike program in New York City, expressed an interest in learning more about how bicycling fits into policy-making, the environment, social entrepreneurship, community-building, and social justice. The organization responded by supporting Kimberly and Kristi to attend the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. During their first trip to the Nation's capital, the then-17-year-old participants explored the city by bike, attended the conference, and lobbied elected officials on Capitol Hill. As the group debriefed on the bus ride home, they discussed the importance of engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in the national dialogue of cycling education and advocacy. As a result, the idea of the Youth Bike Summit came into being. Both young advocates have been active participants in founding and growing the Youth Bike Summit.
