Every fall, student organizers from Making Waves and Youth Speaks bring together hundreds of young people, community organizers and artists to San Francisco State University. The Youth Empowerment Summit is free to youth and provides panels and workshops, followed by an Arts Festival featuring some of the hottest performers, DJs and artists bringing conscious flavor and culture to the stage.

Each year, the Summit provides attendees with:
* Workshops & Panels on Arts, Activism and Social Justice
* Networking opportunities with conscious community
* Hip-Hop Djs
* Music & Spoken Word performances
* Vendors & Artist Displays
* Free giveaways of CDs, t-shirts and special prizes
* Special Guests to be announced!
FREE for participants who PRE-REGISTER, contact making waves at branson.com here and indicate the full names of youth who wish to register or send a myspace message with your fullname to be pre-registered for the summit!

The Youth Empowerment Summit has been an annual event since 2003 through support from the Hip Hop In the Schools Initiative, a group of collaborative youth agencies and educators. The first Summit was organized by a group of high school students from Making Waves in San Rafael, an organization providing at-risk youth with academic support and college exposure. These young leaders felt it was important to bring together other youth from all over the Bay Area to share information, resources and ideas to create change in their communities. Since 2005, Youth Speaks has joined forces to co-sponsor the Summit.