The idea for the Placer County Youth Commission was born during a meeting with many youth-serving community agencies in December 2008.  With the support from those community agencies, the University of California Cooperative Extension, 4-H Youth Development Program and the Placer County Department of Health and Human Services joined together to form a Founding Team of youth to design and develop the structure of the Youth Commission.

In February, an application for the Founding Team was released.  Fifteen youth initially formed the Founding Team which began meeting at the end of February 2008.  The team met twice a month from February to May, developing the mission statement and goals, designing the Executive Committee of the Youth Commission, and determining the size of the group and age of eligibility.At the end of April, three members of the Founding Team gave a presentation to the original group of community partners.  The partners were impressed and urged the group on.

On May 12, 2009, the Founding Team was ready to present their request for approval to the Board of Supervisors.  Supervisor Jim Holmes was supportive on the Commission from its inception and introduced the youth and the resolution to create the Placer County Youth Commission (Resolution 2009-116). The Board had a unanimous vote for the Youth Commission.

In early June of 2009, applications for the Placer County Youth Commission were made available to the youth of the County, and the interviews for the fifteen Commissioner positions were held in July 2009. In August, the nominating committee made recommendations for the fifteen seats to the Board of Supervisors, all of which were approved on August 18, 2009. In October 2009, the first ever meeting of the Placer County Youth Commission was held.

On August 10, 2010 the Placer County Board of Supervisors adopted a Resolution  (Resolution 2010-207) amending Resolution No. 2009-116 in order to add three at large alternate members to the Youth Commission.   The Placer County Youth Commission now consists of eighteen members -  fifteen primary members and three alternate members.

At the October 13, 2010 Business Meeting the Commissioners appointed the first ever Ambassadors, who were the formal connection between the Commission and various groups, schools, youth-oriented organizations, or interest areas in the community.  Commissioners who served during the 2009-2010 designed the Ambassador role to further the Commission's impact.