This three day conference was attended by 716 youth and adults from 133 counties. The Summit was designed to increase awareness of state and local issues, enhance youth-adult partnerships at the local level and equip youth to become active locally in the betterment of their community. The Summit focused on issues related to Economic Development, Education, Health, and Safety. In adddition to preparing youth to address local issues, the Summit provided a forum through which youth identified the issues that are relevant to them and their communities. These reports are shared with the Governor, the Georgia General Assembly, and other leaders throughout the state.

Funding for the Georgia Youth Summit was provided by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and the Georgia Rural Development Councel through the Leadership Infrastructure Investment Fund, with the goal of preparing the next generation of Georgia's leaders. The University of Georgia, College of Angriculture & Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Extension, Georgia 4-H coordinated the Summit with assistance from the Georgia EMCs and Fort Valley State University.

The Summit is open to youth and adults from any youth development organization. Scholarships for four youth and one adult were provided to teams from every county in the state.

While at the Summit participants discussed community challenges and assets and developed an action plan to address a local issue. Connecting county teams with resources and potential collaborators was a key goal of the Summit. The theme of this year's Summit was "Take Up the Torch" and participants were inspired by speaker Crystal Hardy, who was selected to carry the torch in the 2008 Olympics because of her commitment to developing projects that address needs in her community.

Mr. Mike Worley, Manager for Non-Metro Community Development at Georgia Power, spoke on the issue of Economic Development. Mr. Keith Carter, Principal of Colham Ferry Elementary School, spoke on the issue of Education. Dr. Rodney Lyn, Professor, Georgia State University & Director of Policy Leadership for Active Youth, spoke on the issue of Health. Chief Jimmy Williamson, UGA Chief of Police, spoke on the issue of Safety. These speakers also answered a variety of questions from the youth in attendance.

After identifying an issue, Summit teams learned how to use a logic model to identify the root causes of issues and develop a realistic plan for producing short-term, medium-term, and long-term outcomes. They also learned about grant writing and how to promote their project to key community partners.

Georgia 4-H wwould like to thank the following members of the 2010 Georgia Youth Summit Planning Committee for all of their hard work:

• Jeff Buckley - State 4-H Specialist
• Helen C. Clark - Camden 4-H
• Gale Cutler - Georgia EMC
• Laura Garrett - Clayton County 4-H
• Juawn Jackson - Bibb 4-H
• Antoine Jefferson - UGA 4-H
• Robert Johnson - Cobb 4-H
• Jennifer Jordan - State 4-H Specialist
• Max Kiewat - Cherokee 4-H
• Asha Mathis - Clarke 4-H
• Darius Maynard - Bibb 4-H
• Kevin Morris - Chatham 4-H
• Phillip Petway - Fort Valley State 4-H
• Maia Price - Spalding 40H
• Will Walker - Turner 4-H
• Heather Williams - UGA 4-H
• Charlie Wurst - State 4-H Specialist