There is Always Something to Learn

Juliana Vaccaro de Souza 14 February 2019 Non-Stop Advocate On paper, Amy Dudas is the Director of Re-engagement and Workforce Initiatives for the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA), a coalition of organizations directed toward youth in the District. In reality, the 31-year-old from Jersey Shore is an event planner, a grant writer, a witness on City Council, an advocate for youth workforce development, and an avid DC community member—all while still pursuing a Master of Arts in Public Administration at George Washington University.

“There’s always something new to learn,” she said regarding her work. “There’s very few days of mine that feel similar, which is nice. You’re always doing a new mix of things, and I enjoy that.” Dudas’ work with advocacy started back in 2008 as an undergraduate at Simmons University, focusing her degree on International relations around human rights and interning at Women Work, a now-defunct organization geared towards women’s rights in the workforce.

Workforce development, in particular, was one of her long-time passions.

“As a community-minded young person with family members in the community that was very much of the ‘If people could just get a job, things would be better,’” she said. “I saw very quickly that that’s not fair if people aren’t prepared for the workforce, if we’re not listening to employers, we’re not matching education up with the jobs available in the community… That’s a very empty thing to say.” Dudas moved to Washington, DC, in 2010, but it was only in 2013 that she began working at DCAYA, taking a bigger role in advocacy projects.

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In the last five years, she helped start the DC Youth Re-engagement Center in 2014 in partnership with the Office of the State Superintended of Education (OSSE), establish the State Diploma for DC’s nontraditional students in 2016, and create a transportation subsidy with the DC Adult and Family Literacy Coalition for adults and other alternative students. “I think my understanding of advocacy,” she said regarding her time in DCAYA. “And the role that we can play in not just advancing the needs of the community but working with the community—in the community—so that they are leading things and we are supporting it is something that’s evolved over my time in DCAYA.” Being a DC resident plays a big part in Dudas’ life. Spending most of her adult life in the area, she admitted that it feels like home, making her want to keep contributing to the community.

While Dudas currently works on initiatives to empower youth-led projects, she also maintains and improves the work already done, expanding initiatives to include transportation for homeless youth, facilitating childcare for nontraditional hours, and making documentation for youth more accessible. “I think my favorite thing about DC is its lasting power, that there are people who have been here for decades and will be here for decades,” she said. “When you live here when you get to know DC’s neighborhoods and businesses and the people who live here… It is a thriving community of people that have been here for a long time and have been making huge contributions just to the growth of the city and the culture of the city, and I would love to just see more investment in that over time.’