PROVIDENCE — Chace Baptista had an epiphany Tuesday night.

After spending a 12-hour day trying to persuade powerful adults that the opinions of young adults matter, Baptista, the co-director of Young Voices, addressed a roomful of political and civic leaders on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

For Baptista, a Manton Avenue kid whose father bounces in and out of jail, it was a genuine “Aha” moment:

“I realized that I had just spent every second of my day furthering the lives of people like me,” the 22-year-old said. “I never thought I could do that.”

Baptista is one of two dozen young adults whose lives have been touched by Young Voices, a fledgling youth group founded by Karen Feldman. A few years ago, Baptista was adrift, with no plans for the future beyond hanging out with his friends in the neighborhood.

Then he met Feldman and things began to change. Baptista began to find his voice, and, in doing so, he began to feel the power that comes from speaking the truth to adults, the power that comes from breaking stereotypes about urban youth.

“We’re propelled by the work,” Feldman said. “We take the leap that we’re going to do the work because we believe in it and we love it.”

Feldman decided to create Young Voices because she felt that too many nonprofit organizations, whose mission is youth empowerment, don’t have young adults in positions of authority. For these students to be effective, they had to learn “adult speak.” They had to learn how to articulate their concerns in ways that adults understand.

They also had to learn that passion isn’t enough, that you have to back up arguments with data. That led to November’s forum, when Young Voices presented six months’ worth of research on student attitudes toward school and public safety before a crowd of city and state leaders, including Mayor David N. Cicilline and Peter McWalters, state commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

Building on the momentum of the November gathering, Young Voices has been meeting with city leaders, school officials, legislators and community organizations to make sure that young adults have a voice in policies that affect them.

“Youth are an invisible constituency,” said Baptista, 22. “This is the end of youth being quiet. Youth are here to make a difference. We’re speaking out so our peers can have the lives they want.”

The members of Young Voices are definitely making their voices heard. They have met with Supt. Donnie Evans’ cabinet to discuss what role they can play in developing a new method of evaluating teachers. They are speaking next week with Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers’ Union, to discuss how issues in the teachers contract affect students.

Last week, Young Voices presented their school data to the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, which peppered them with questions for 20 minutes.

Young Voices is also reaching out to powerful people, such as House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence. Its members are serving on task forces and committees, including the mayor’s Poverty, Work and Opportunity Task Force and the Greater Kennedy Plaza Workgroup.

And Young Voices is forging alliances with other youth groups to create quality after-school programs for teens, working with local businesses to create a new model for high school internships and working with the police chief to ensure that students have a say in the selection of student resource officers, who work in the schools.

According to Feldman, something magical happens when a young adult walks into a room full of adults whose mission is to improve the lives of children.

“The environment changes,” she said. “It reminds the adults why they are there in the first place.”

According to Baptista, the hope is that city and state leaders will recognize that a meeting isn’t complete with a young adult in the room: “People have to see youth as real participants.”

But Young Voices is about more than changing the ways in which adults view urban youth. It’s about changing the way that young people think about themselves.

For Jhan Frias, a senior at Feinstein High School, Young Voices has not only helped him discover his own value, but spurred him to measure progress in ways that have nothing to do with the material world.

“Every time I step into a room, someone is always listening,” Frias said. “By speaking out, I’m creating a positive image for minority males. I’m not only using what I’ve learned for my own benefit, but for everyone else.”

lborg@projo.com