Institutionalizing Youth Voice

By Adam Fletcher

Becoming part of a system, integrating throughout a culture and tying together broad resources can ensure that Youth Voice is sustainable. That process is called institutionalization, and it represents the process of making a concept, social role, values, norms or behaviors part of an organization, social system or society. We need nothing less than to see that effort as essential to Youth Voice. The following are steps that groups, organizations, and communities can use as a guide to institutionalize Youth Voice.

• There are ways to carry out the policies that support the objectives of goals of Youth Voice

• Policies supporting Youth Voice activities have been published in a document available to youth, adult allies, youth workers, government officials, politicians and families.

• Data related to Youth Voice as it affects the young people involved, their peers, adult allies, and the larger community is regularly collected.

• Budgets include line items that support the implementation of Youth Voice activities.

• Regular training orients new youth participants and adults and strengthens existing youth and adult allies' skills, knowledge and commitment to Youth Voice.

• The Youth Voice coordinator reports to a high-level administrator and the position is incorporated into the organizational chart.

• The Youth Voice program has survived a significant change of leadership among youth, adult allies and within the group, organization and/or community.

• Other groups, organizations and/or communities are assisted in designing, implementing, sustaining and/or evaluating their Youth Voice activities through conferences, workshops and/or local outreach.

These are initial steps that ongoing research has shown are the most effective ways to institutionalize Youth Voice.

© 2010. Adam Fletcher owns the copyright for this material on behalf of The Freechild Project. You are welcome to print out this material for educational purposes only - you cannot make any financial gain from them without the explicit permission of the author. You may not photocopy any part of this material without explicit permission of the author. For more information write info [at] freechild.org 

Visit our friends, allies and partners: