We are an autonomous, non-partisan organization that seeks to be the voice of Anguilla’s youth, promoting youth empowerment through advocacy, capacity building, and strategic partnerships.

Anguilla’s young people are focused, dynamic, and empowered such that they are valued as significant leaders in the sustainable development of the island.

The constitution of the Anguilla National Youth Council states that “the Council was established as a national body to protect the interests of all youth, and to advance and promote the general welfare and social progress of not only the youth but also the people of Anguilla.” 

In February of 1979, the first National Youth Conference identified “the basic need to combat ignorance of social, political, and economic possibilities and events on Anguilla and to build positive attitudes in youth people towards the improvement of the community.” Delegates recognized the need to involve a broad cross-section of young people in all aspects of national development and considered a large number of young people uninvolved in youth organizations as well as those loosely organized in informal groups before approving guidelines for forming a National Youth Coordinating Body. At that time, “It was felt that a Youth Department as an arm of Government would become necessary as young people began to play a more active role in the community.”

In 1986, the ANYC became a founding member of the Caribbean Federation of Youth and it also holds a membership in the World Assembly of Youth. During that time, the objectives of the Council were identified as providing national representation for youth and youth organizations in Anguilla; organizing and coordinating projects of national interest to youth; and addressing any problems affecting youth on a national, regional, or international level. The end of the 1980s and into the decade of the 1990s, however, saw the ANYC at its lowest ebb. After a long period of dormancy, in 2001 through a project supported by the UK Good Government Fund to increase civil society participation in democracy, an Interim Committee was established to attempt to revive, revamp, and re-shape the ANYC. Partisan politics and a general lack of commitment across the board were cited as major causes of the organization’s past loss of constituency and function. In 2006, the National Youth Council Steering Committee was established and charged with getting the ANYC to where it is today, and an Executive for the revived ANYC was elected to office in March 2007.

At present, the ANYC is affiliated with the Government of Anguilla’s Department of Youth and Culture which provides support for its development and implementation of this Strategic Plan. The Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre (CYP-CC) has been an important partner, providing technical assistance, training, and various forms of guidance for the ANYC over the years. It was instrumental in providing support for the development of the Anguilla National Youth Policy, laid on the table by the Anguilla House of Assembly in 2003 as well as for the process leading up to the drafting of the 2010 Strategic Plan and its review in 2014 and, once again, in 2018.