# Opinion: Our youth deserve a real seat at the table > Source: > Published: 2026-07-28 13:50:19+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...Young people need our community’s support today more than ever. You may be surprised to read that your mayor was not exactly a model student. When I was in high school, I was not particularly focused. I didn’t have much direction, and community involvement wasn’t on my mind. I often say that I had a lot of energy and very few productive places to put it, which led to me getting into trouble and making my fair share of mistakes. And yet, here I am, the youngest mayor in Los Gatos history. I share that not to brag, but because I often see young people being dismissed for the same behavior I exhibited at their age. This matters for how we understand the potential of our youth and how the Los Gatos community should support the next generation. As a 28-year-old today, high school was only about 10 years ago for me. During my youth, I enjoyed a relatively large amount of freedom, as did many of my peers. I could make mistakes without everything being recorded and explore ideas without worrying they might follow me for the rest of my life. At 16, I didn’t worry that AI would displace my career, wonder if I could afford the lifestyle my parents built or fear the world I grew up loving would be unrecognizable by the time I had kids of my own. Some of that was privilege, of course, and some was the blissful ignorance of being a teenager. But I believe a meaningful part of these differences is simply that the world has changed. The pressures young people carry today are real and in many cases new: record levels of mental health challenges, relentless comparison on social media, economic uncertainty and systemic problems like climate change and our housing crisis. Youth must grapple with these issues despite having played no role in their creation. And yet these same young people are not sitting still. Many are organizing walkouts, launching climate campaigns, advocating for mental health resources and pushing for change in our community. When I look at the students I work with, I do not see future leaders. I see current ones. Accordingly, I believe those of us who have enjoyed the richness of this community owe it to the next generation to ensure they can enjoy that same richness. That means showing up in the lives of young people as mentors, coaches, advocates and neighbors. This belief led me to start the Young Leaders Group (YLG). Every other week during the school year, I sit down with several dozen high school students and guest speakers to talk about the issues they care about most. The topics we discuss are selected by the student participants and range widely, from leadership and tech to politics and healthcare. The goal of YLG is to create a space for young people to engage in meaningful discussions and learn from each other and from local experts. The enthusiasm I witnessed during YLG meetings convinced me that something bigger was possible, and this led to co-creating the Youth Town Hall earlier this year. The Youth Town Hall was built on the premise that young people, when given the responsibility and the tools to address challenges, will readily take charge. This came to fruition when about 200 local students gathered at West Valley College for a day of panels, breakout sessions and a resource fair. The panel featured Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, state Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, El Camino Health executive Bido Baines, Stanford democracy scholar Dr. Karina Kloos and Los Gatos High School student and advocate Nova Jayaraj. What inspired me most about the Town Hall was that the ideas, the topics and the outreach were all conceived and built by students. Frankly, the Los Gatos and Leigh high school students did not just assist with planning this event; they led it, and I was the one who found myself trying to keep up with them. I am also deeply grateful to El Camino Health, West Valley College and SASCC for their immense support of this day. Young people live in this community every day. They experience its strengths and its gaps in ways that adults often miss. This matters not only because our young people will be here when we are gone, but also because they are here right now. They deserve a direct say in the decisions both affecting them presently and defining the future of Los Gatos. The decisions being made right now in government, tech, healthcare and beyond are the next generation’s to inherit, and yet we rarely build structures that invite them in before those decisions are made. That mentality has to change, and it starts with us. For the adults reading this, get involved in the life of a young person. This does not have to be complicated. It can look like formal mentorship, taking on an intern at your job, coaching a sport (I still help coach wrestling at Leigh), being more present as an aunt or uncle, or simply making time to have a real conversation with a teenager in your life. For the students reading this, the adults in your life want to hear from you more than you probably think. Speak up. I have witnessed firsthand how much weight young voices carry in rooms where decisions are being made, precisely because those voices will live with the consequences for decades. Seek out mentors. Find someone you admire and ask them directly to play that role in your life. Get involved in a cause you care about, connect with a student already making a difference, or consider joining the next cohort of my Young Leaders Group at [www.robforlosgatos.com/young-leaders](http://www.robforlosgatos.com/young-leaders). If you are wondering whether your voice matters, I want you to hear this clearly: It matters now more than ever. I am listening, and so is our community. *Rob Moore is the mayor of Los Gatos.*