Three Things the Social Sector Can Do to Build a Supportive Youth Infrastructure
It's no secret most decisions involving youth don’t really involve youth. Whether it’s what types of school activities to provide, accessible healthcare options in rural communities, or even budgetary decisions for youth activities, young people are rarely consulted–much less engaged in the decisions that impact them most. Adults often give lip service about the importance of those most proximate to the issues being the most engaged in the decision-making process. Yet, when it comes to young people, the default is to have adults make decisions on their behalf. Lack of youth engagement is usually justified with phrases like, “young people don’t really know what’s best for them given their age,” or “youth just don’t really care that much or want to be involved in their community.”
Based on our youth engagement work with partners, such as StriveTogether, Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum, and others, young people not only want to be engaged in their community, they want a true partnership with adults based on mutual respect, shared responsibility, and shared power. So, what should the key considerations be when developing a youth engagement strategy that centers youth power and voice? And what type of infrastructure is needed to best support young leaders?
Youth Infrastructure
It’s hard to identify any movement or major systemic change that happens without an apparatus to support it. Building youth power requires an infrastructure to ensure young people have the resources necessary to impact change in their communities. Through our work at Levado, we have identified three (3) core infrastructure pieces that optimize youth engagement in communities across the nation and abroad.
If you value youth voice, show us your budget.
Adults often take for granted their participation in collaborative action work, youth committees, and youth policy and programming is paid for by an employer. Young people should be compensated for their time as well. At Future Focused Education in New Mexico, school-aged youth enroll in paid internships through a Youth Civic Infrastructure Initiative that matches urban, rural, and tribal schools with local nonprofit organizations. The internship focuses on youth-led advocacy and organizing around issues determined by young people. The nonprofit hosts provide training and technical assistance, partnership with adults, and management of the partnership with school leaders. National service organizations, like YouthBuild USA and Public Allies, also compensate proximate youth and young adults for their civic engagement by providing living allowances and educational awards to address issues impacting their communities.
Create youth spaces that are for us, by us.
There has been a lot of debate around creating spaces that are exclusive to youth versus engaging young people in existing, adult-led steering committees, workgroups, and other civic structures. There is no right or wrong answer to this question. However, there are potential challenges and risks associated with simply plugging in young people to existing adult structures. For one, youth representation without preparation when entering historically adult spaces is a recipe for disaster. Social sector language, for example, is laden with confusing terms and acronyms that might alienate young people entering historically adult spaces. Secondly, if representation doesn’t include mutual respect and some equilibrium of power, young people will likely feel tokenized and will disengage. At the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF) and Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN), young people both nationally and internationally gather twice per year to convene a youth-led, youth-supported summit that invites young people to design solutions in their communities. Adults have to be invited into these spaces with youth and typically participate as “active listeners,” not “problem-solvers.” By doing this, young people create a safe space for open dialogue, while adults better understand the issues from a youth perspective.
Engage young people in roles that have historically been reserved for adults.
We have seen great strides in building youth-friendly policy agendas throughout the country, where young people took a leadership role in the ideation, implementation, and evaluation of their efforts. For example, through our work with StriveTogether and Kids Impact Initiative, young people in Fresno, California used a Youth Impact Assessment (YIA) focused on the lack of STEM opportunities at their school. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approaches are a perfect example of how roles–like assessment and evaluation– can be shifted from adults to the young people most proximate to the issues.
You may be wondering why YPAR and the shifting of roles from adults to young people is in a post about youth infrastructure. It’s because the capability that’s necessary for the shifting of power, leadership, and distributive work often has to be built and maintained. For example, who is providing the training and support for YPAR to be implemented in a community? Who is funding youth participation in the action research? Moreover, who is partnering with the young people to co-design the questions, interpret the results, and make meaning of the data? Fresh Tracks, a project of the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum, is a good example of how adult allies and infrastructure can support youth in identifying key areas of well-being within cultural contexts and traditions. In this example, because of unique cultural contexts and lived experiences, young people are best positioned to answer questions about their own well-being–with the support of adult allies.
It’s important to note that funding other youth infrastructure, like intermediary organizations, media campaigns, and partnerships with key stakeholder groups is critical as well. Centering youth voices by developing an infrastructure to support youth-led change will not happen on a three-year funding cycle, nor will it happen with a piece-meal funding strategy. Investment in young people is not an investment in the future–it’s an investment in the now.
Dr. Frank Mirabal is a Co-Founder and Partner at Levado, a consulting firm owned and led by people of color that is committed to restorative practices and partnerships that create better lives, vibrant communities, and inclusive economies.