Bold Ideas, Real Impact: Meet the 2026 Youth Action Hour Finalists
A national showcase of youth-led solutions turning bold ideas into real change.
Each year, the Youth Action Hour shines a spotlight on the creativity, leadership, and bold ideas emerging from young leaders across the country. We receive an incredible range of applications—each proposing innovative solutions to challenges facing young people and their communities. After a careful review process, a small group of finalists is selected to move forward and share their ideas with the broader NYEC network.
The 2026 finalists presented their projects during the Youth Action Hour Virtual Showcase, where they introduced their concepts, shared the inspiration behind their work, and discussed how their ideas could create meaningful change in their communities. From these presentations, one project was selected as this year’s Youth Action Hour winner.
The winner will take the main stage at the 2026 NYEC Annual Forum, where they will share their project with attendees from across the country and highlight the power of youth leadership in driving real solutions. Below, you can learn more about this year’s winner and the inspiring finalists whose ideas made this year’s showcase so memorable.
De’Asia Wiggins
Founder, The Foster Bean Coffee
De’Asia Wiggins is the founder of The Foster Bean Coffee, a mobile coffee stand built on the idea that business can be a vehicle for opportunity and community. Drawing from her own lived experience, De’Asia is turning entrepreneurship into a platform for impact—creating something that serves both great coffee and a greater purpose.
The Foster Bean Coffee provides quality beverages while creating hands-on work opportunities for young people with foster care experience. Through the stand, young people can gain exposure to customer service, workplace expectations, and the day-to-day operations of running a small business in a supportive and encouraging environment.
In addition to beverage service, the project is designed to offer mentorship, life-skills development, and practical job readiness support for youth navigating foster care and the transition into adulthood. By pairing a community-centered coffee business with real-world skill building, The Foster Bean Coffee creates a space where young people can build confidence, experience, and a stronger foundation for the future.
As this year’s winner, De’Asia received:
- $1,000 in seed funding
- An expenses-paid trip to the Annual Forum
- A mainstage spotlight to share her work
Projects led by young people, built for real-world impact
From justice reform to intergenerational care, this year’s finalists brought forward solutions that are ambitious, thoughtful, and deeply rooted in community.
Project Spotlight
Break the System
CJ Melendez
CJ is a Chicago-based youth engagement strategist and the Founder and Executive Director of the Break The System Project (BTS). His advocacy is shaped by his own experience in the foster care system, where he moved through multiple homes as a child and later faced housing instability after being expelled from his adoptive home as a teenager due to his sexuality. After navigating homelessness and aging out of support systems, CJ built stability for himself on Chicago’s South Side and now channels his lived experience into advocacy, working to ensure system-impacted young men have access to the guidance, stability, and opportunities that were often missing in his own path.
The Break The System Project (BTS) is a Chicago-based initiative dedicated to empowering system-impacted young men ages 18–24 through direct outreach, trauma-informed programming, and community-rooted support. Founded by CJ Melendez, the project centers lived experience as a strength and works to help participants move beyond survival by building interpersonal, leadership, and life skills while navigating housing, employment, and personal stability. BTS focuses particularly on young men on Chicago’s South Side who have aged out of foster care, experienced homelessness, or been impacted by the juvenile justice system. Since launching in 2025, the initiative has already reached over 267 young men, offering workshops, mentorship, and resource navigation designed to strengthen long-term stability and opportunity.
Project Spotlight
Workforce LEAD Program
Shaylan Wilson & Precious Lawrence
Shaylan Wilson is a first-generation college student, social justice advocate, and Master of Social Work student at Colorado State University Pueblo. Her work focuses on policy advocacy, equitable mental health, and holistic cannabis health research for BIPOC and underserved communities. Precious Lawrence is a conservation leader and emerging policy advocate with years of experience in forestry and urban and rural land management, where she worked at the intersection of land use, community safety, and environmental justice. She is now pivoting into legal and policy work to advance community-informed, historically grounded solutions that address structural inequities impacting Black communities.
The Workforce LEAD Program proposes a workforce-centered alternative to incarceration for young adults ages 18–34 who are at risk of entering or returning to the justice system. The program integrates paid internships, apprenticeships, trade school placements, and employer-sponsored training into diversion and reentry pathways. Launching as a pilot in Aurora and Pueblo counties in Colorado, it aims to reduce recidivism while helping participants build meaningful careers and long-term stability. If successful, the model could expand statewide as a scalable strategy connecting justice reform with workforce development.
Project Spotlight
Carefor2
Madeline Medrano
Madeline Medrano is a Public Health student at the University of Houston with more than three years of experience leading youth initiatives. Her work is rooted in a commitment to community health equity and was inspired by seeing the isolation her grandmother experienced. She is passionate about creating practical, people-centered solutions that strengthen care, connection, and opportunity across generations.
Carefor2 is a youth-led initiative designed to connect young people with paid opportunities to support isolated seniors in their communities. After completing specialized training, participants will provide companionship, technology assistance, and non-medical medication support during regular visits. The program will build leadership and employment experience for youth while reducing social isolation among older adults. By strengthening intergenerational connections, Carefor2 creates meaningful benefits for both youth and seniors.