Youth Empowerment in Action (YEA) grew from a simple idea: young people deserve meaningful opportunities to be heard, lead, contribute, and help shape the communities they are part of. Since launching our weekly teen program in August 2024, YEA has grown into an active youth-led and youth-centered initiative that provides teens with opportunities for leadership development, community service, peer connection, civic engagement, and participation in community decision-making.

As YEA has grown, teens have helped shape not only our programs but the organization itself. Their input has informed our strategic planning, community projects, partnerships, and priorities. As we transition from a grassroots initiative into an independent nonprofit organization, we want that commitment to youth voice reflected in our legal and governance structure—not simply in our programming.

We have already completed significant groundwork toward nonprofit formation, including reserving our organizational name, developing draft bylaws, establishing a founding adult board (minus one remaining seat to fill), and exploring different models for incorporating youth into governance. We are now seeking legal guidance to ensure the organization we formally establish is compliant, sustainable, and true to the youth-inclusive model we have worked to build.

YEA is approaching the point where we are ready to formally establish the organization, but we do not want to finalize our bylaws or file formation documents until we are confident that our proposed governance structure is legally sound.

Our primary challenge is determining how to meaningfully include teens in organizational governance while maintaining compliance with Texas nonprofit law and creating a board structure that functions well in practice. We have explored several possible models for youth participation and received differing recommendations about issues such as youth board membership, voting authority, representation through a teen council, officer roles, quorum, and continuity.

We need legal guidance to evaluate these options, finalize an appropriate youth-inclusive governance model, and ensure that our bylaws, Certificate of Formation, and other organizational documents accurately reflect that structure. From there, we need assistance confirming the appropriate steps toward incorporation and federal and state tax-exempt status.

Resolving these questions now will allow YEA to move forward with formation confidently rather than creating a governance structure that may need significant legal or operational changes later.

Youth Empowerment in Action (YEA) is seeking legal volunteers to help us complete the nonprofit formation process and establish a legally sound, youth-inclusive governance structure. We have already developed draft bylaws, identified most of our founding adult board members, reserved our organization name, and begun planning our formation process.

We are seeking assistance with:
- Reviewing and finalizing our bylaws for compliance with Texas nonprofit law and federal 501(c)(3) requirements.
- Advising on our proposed youth-inclusive governance structure, including legally and practically appropriate ways for teens/minors to have meaningful representation and decision-making authority.
- Reviewing the roles, voting rights, responsibilities, quorum implications, and continuity considerations associated with the proposed adult and youth governance structure.
- Reviewing and assisting with our Texas Certificate of Formation and other documents needed to formally establish the nonprofit.
- Reviewing our conflict-of-interest policy and identifying any other core governance documents that should be adopted during formation.
- Advising on the appropriate sequence and requirements for incorporation, EIN registration, federal 501(c)(3) recognition, and applicable Texas tax-exemption filings.
- Reviewing final formation and governance documents for consistency before filing/adoption.

Ideally, this project will conclude with YEA having a finalized governance structure and bylaws, completed or filing-ready formation documents, and a clear legal pathway for completing state and federal nonprofit formation.