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About COYAC

COYAC members wearing business professional attire pose on the south steps of the Colorado State Capitol Building

2024 Day at the Capitol

In 2008, Colorado State Representative Ellen Roberts (HD59-Durango) introduced House Bill 08-1157 to “examine, evaluate and discuss the issues, interests, and needs affecting Colorado youth now and in the future, and to formally advise and make recommendations to elected officials regarding those issues.” The Colorado Legislature passed the bill to create the Colorado Youth Advisory Council (COYAC), giving Colorado’s youth a voice in the lawmaking process.

COYAC consists of 40 youth members, ages 14-19:

Youth members serve two-year terms, and they may serve more than one term.

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Legislative Members

The leadership of the Colorado state legislature appoints legislators to the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee.

Staff

The Colorado Youth Advisory Council is a program of the Colorado Legislature, whose Office of Legislative Council contracts with the Bighorn Leadership Program, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, to manage the Colorado Youth Advisory Council. COYAC’s contracted staff is nonpartisan and policy agnostic. Staff supports the students similarly to the way Legislative Council staff supports the legislators, providing:

Sarah Moss once dreamed of being the first woman to play in the NBA, preferably for the Denver Nuggets, but she discovered she wasn’t very good at basketball. Instead, she became a civic dreamer and doer and a strategist solving policy and political puzzles. (She remains a lifelong Denver Nuggets fan.) Moss has more than 20 years of experience ranging from local government, to public awareness campaigns, to serving in the Office of Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her first job in high school was inspecting coolers and backpacks at the front gate of Hyland Hills WaterWorld.

The Denver native has lived in Washington, DC twice. Moss is a two-time fellow of the Bighorn Leadership Program (in economic development and Colorado’s energy future) and a Truman National Security Project Security Fellow. She is a member of the Colorado City & County Management Association and Engaging Local Government Leaders. A lifelong learner, she earned a Denver Peak Academy black belt in Lean process improvement, an Executive Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver, a B.A. in Public Communication from American University, and a yellow belt in Krav Maga.

Brenda Morrison founded and chairs the Bighorn Leadership Program and Civic Innovators, LLC, a company specializing in public engagement and policy/advocacy training. She is best known for her role in creating several of Colorado’s state-wide public engagement campaigns on complex public policy issues for clients such as The Women’s Foundation of Colorado, TBD Colorado, and Colorado’s Future. She brings extensive experience in public policy development and implementation both on the state and local levels given her past work with community development organizations and as the Associate Director of the Bighorn Center for Public Policy. Brenda is a sought-after trainer in public engagement and has taught workshops in such locations as Jordan and Tunisia. In addition, she has extensive expertise in the nonprofit sector. A graduate of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver, Brenda has published several articles on women’s history and social movements that demonstrate the intersection of Colorado history and public policy.

COYAC Enabling Legislation

HB08-1157 Concerning the creation of a Youth Advisory Council, and making an appropriation therefor

SB13-148 Concerning continuation of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council

HB19-1024 Concerning creation of the Colorado youth advisory council review committee, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation

HB20-1021 Concerning the addition of representatives from Native American tribes with reservations in Colorado to the Colorado Youth Advisory Council

SB22-014 Colorado Youth Advisory Council Updates – Requires that 2 of the council’s 4 meetings each year be held in person

SB23-076 Sunset Continue CO Youth Advisory Council – Continues COYAC until September 1, 2028; renames the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee as the Representative Hugh McKean Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee, and appropriates $50,000 to COYAC for the 2023-24 state fiscal year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024)

HB24-1347 FY 2024-25 Legislative Appropriation Bill – Appropriates $50,000 to COYAC for the 2024-25 state fiscal year (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025)

SB25-199 Suspend Legislative Interim Activities – Removes the authority of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee to recommend legislation through the interim committee process and appropriates $45,000 to COYAC for the 2025-26 state fiscal year (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026)

SB25-188 Fiscal Year 2025-26 Legislative Appropriation Bill – Appropriates $5,000 to COYAC for the 2025-26 state fiscal year (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026)