The theme for this year's Statewide Kidspeak event, held May 11, 2011 was Youth Speak Out: Achieving Success from Cradle to Career.  It was selected in acknowledgement and support of Governor Snyder’s strategy for education reform. 

Approximately 16 youth from across the state spent the day in Michigan’s State Capitol meeting with state legislators, state department leaders, and other state level private nonprofit administrators to discuss both educational barriers and pathways they have experienced in graduating from high school and enrolling in college. Educational barriers identified by the young people included inadequate funding for education, access the need for additional schools designed to serve teen parents, free or low cost credit recovery programs for transient youth, access to mental health programs and services to assist with gaining access to psychotropic medications, and the need for college access programs that target specific populations like young people who have aged out of foster care.  Educational pathways students who dropped out of school used re-engage in academics included Youthbuild and Job Corp programs.

View photos from the event