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Strategies to Sustain
Youth Voice
By Adam Fletcher
Beginning to walk the
road of Youth Voice can be exciting for both young
people and their adult allies. The energy,
enthusiasm and courage can be contagious for other
people, too, and they may become motivated to get
involved. However, before the thrill is gone and the
good times have become work it is important to
develop a plan to sustain Youth Voice. Following are
some different strategies programs around the world
have successfully used. They are into two areas:
Build a Strong Foundation and Take Action.
The percentage of
children and youth who are disengaged in their lives
is surely increasing steadily throughout our
country. The mainstream media, politicians, youth
program workers, and other people have exploited
statistics, research and other tools to make their
points about young people, and it has worked.
Build a Strong Foundation:
Strategies 1-4
Programs,
organizations and communities can build a strong
foundation that will effectively engage and sustain
Youth Voice. The first four strategies can help
young people and adults work together to develop a
customized approach that meets their specific, local
needs and interests; earn the support and commitment
of young people and adults; use insights gained from
scientific research; and emphasize engagement and
equity to maximize effectiveness and efficiency.
1. Address
adultism and
ephebiphobia through active Youth Voice
programs, organizations and community programs.
Six components that can strongly influence student
health and learning are involved in engaging Youth
Voice throughout our society. Successful Youth Voice
programs engage young people in:
-
Equitable
youth/adult partnerships - Meaningful,
substantive relationships built on justice and
fairness.
-
Social
networking - A group of people who share
interests and activities, or who are interested
in exploring the interests and activities of
others.
-
Meaningful
learning - Understanding learning through by
applying learning to life instead of through
force, aggression, or threats.
-
Safe and
supportive environments - Places, spaces and
people surrounding young people that embody the
ideals of equity, quality and meaning for all
young people and adults.
-
Lifelong
service - Seeing oneself as part of the
larger world is essential for building Youth
Voice.
-
Community-wide
engagement - Connecting at home, in places
of worship, at school, in community
organizations, in government agencies and
throughout society.
2. Designate a
Youth Voice coordinator in your program,
organization and/or community and maintain an Youth
Voice program. Identifying a Youth Voice
coordinator who focuses on integrating young people
throughout your group, organization or community
will encourage support and sustainability. They
should be the person who is initially responsible
for identifying resources, establishing beginning
protocols, and convening young and older
decision-makers in Youth Voice programs.
3. Assess your
program, organization or community's policies and
programs and develop a plan for improvements. Self-assessment and planning provide structure for
Youth Voice in the way maps guide drivers. A
self-assessment will describe where a program is
currently, while a plan will show where the group,
organization or community wants to go and how they
will get there. A Youth Voice plan can be most
effective when it focuses on existing policies,
practices and programs. It should be guided by
research and developed by a collective of young
people and adults working in an equitable fashion.
4. Strengthen your program, organization or
community's policies and programs. Group,
organization or community policies can dictate how
often and in what ways Youth Voice becomes engaged.
Policies directly affect young peoples'
opportunities to become engaged, while they also
guide adults in decision-making affecting young
people throughout our communities. They can support
the implementation of all other strategies listed in
this article.
Take Action: Strategies 5-10
The next five
strategies can help programs, organizations and
communities move forward from simple discussion
towards action and transformation. These strategies
identify powerful activities that can change the
hearts, minds and actions of young people and
adults.
5. Implement a high-quality Youth Voice
initiative in your program, organization and/or
community. Youth Voice programs can provide
opportunities for young people and their adult
allies to participate as equitable partners
throughout society.
6. Provide
high-quality workshops in an ongoing basis that
builds the skills and knowledge of young people and
adults. Education about Youth Voice can provide
formal opportunities for young people and adults to
acquire knowledge and learn essential skills that
can foster youth/adult partnerships and
intergenerational equity.
8. Increase
opportunities for young people to engage throughout
the programs, organizations and communities they
live in. Youth Voice is a cornerstone of a comprehensive
approach to promoting civic engagement around the
world. All young people, from ages 4 through 25,
should have the opportunity to engage their voices
throughout the day every day. Youth Voice not only
provides opportunities for young people to be engage
in youth programs, but also helps build and support
the knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviors, and
confidence our entire communities need to create
true democracy.
9. Implement an
ongoing Youth Voice evaluation program. Young
people and adults can provide powerful ongoing
insight into the successes, challenges and failures
of Youth Voice. Evaluators should focus on the
effects on the individual participants, effects on
local youth in general, adults in contact with young
participants, and effects on the local community.
10. Ensure that
young people and adults have continuous,
progressive, and constructive opportunities to
engage throughout their communities. Many
organizations and communities offer activities for
young people: recreation, education, and religion
are often the topics of these activities.
These offerings may dramatically increase young
peoples' confidence or participation in the short
range. However, in order to foster these
relationships programs, organizations and
communities must do more. That is what these
opportunities are for.
©
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
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