Activist Learning Deliberately using community activism as an opportunity for collaborative learning. [Activist Learning Resources]

Adultism An imbalanced preference of adult perspectives, actions, language and culture. Adultism usually excludes youth. [Resources to Resist Adultism]

Adult Ally A person who does not identify themselves as a youth who acts in partnership with youth. Adult allieship is fostered in personal, cultural, social, or institutional relationships through friendships, partnerships, or mentoring. [Resources for Adult Allies]

Ageism Exclusionary practices based solely on age.

Community-Based Organizations Also called CBOs, these are nonprofit organizations that serve the public good.

Community Youth Development A strategy, philosophy, and personal approach to acknowledging the ability, authority, and knowledge of young people as powerful, purposeful catalysts for personal, social, cultural, and institutional growth and transformation.

Critical Reflection Thinking about what we are thinking and doing, and then acting on what we have thought about; A circle of learning that promotes continuous action for social justice.  [Critical Reflection Resources]

Direct Action A strategy to raise issues or injustices through an individual or group's physical presence or collective activity that frequently involves a civil disobedience component, which entails breaking a law or an ordinance that is deemed unjust.

Education Education is a process of knowledge creation, in hopes that students will learn it.  Whether in classrooms and schools, organizations and workshops, or communities and activism, education can build a person's skills and analysis, and help them to understand and make choices throughout their life. [Education Resources]

Empower To invest with power, especially legal power or official authority; to equip or supply with an ability

Empowerment A process that strengthens and activates an individual or group’s capacity to satisfy their own needs, solve their own problems, and acquire the necessary resources to take control over their life. [Youth Empowerment Resources]

Ephebiphobia The fear of youth, including the behaviors, conditions, and culture of youth. [Resources on Ephebiphobia]

Infantalization The degradation to the status of an infant of anyone who is not an infant. Includes attitudes, behaviors, structures and culture.

Intergenerational Elders, adults, youth, and children working together, sharing experiences and transferring knowledge so every new organizational effort doesn't start from scratch and so communities can see their collective goals.  [Intergenerational Partnerships Resources]

Juenism An imbalanced preference of youth perspectives, actions, language and culture. Juenism usually excludes adults. 

Organizing Youth organizing and community organizing are strategies for engaging broad groups of individuals in working together for justice, equity, freedom, rights, or other struggles.

Participatory Democracy The idea that our governmental system is at its best when people vote, attend city council meetings, make their voices heard, and are aggressive about presenting the issues they care about to their representatives.  This also refers to organizational systems that operate like a government where everyone is participating and actively involved.  A number of youth organizations try to create an environment wherein all members are encouraged to implement their ideas (as opposed to just talking about it in terms of larger government structures).

Paternalism Behaviors, conditions and cultures that treat people in a fatherly manner, especially by caring for them but not allowing rights or responsibilities.

Pediaphobia The fear of infants and children, including the behaviors, conditions, and culture of childhood.

Political Education Through workshops, lectures, in-the-field experience and learning about power and how it plays out in our lives, political education raises awareness about social and political issues, develops leadership skills, and teaches effective organizational development.  The goal is to educate peoples on the REAL DEAL about our collective situation in the world and to teach us how to fight oppression.

Positive Youth Development Engaging young people in a variety of activities in order to strengthen positive attributes that are considered healthy standards for behavior.

Praxis Bringing together critical reflection and concrete action with/in a community in order to transform it.

Public Space Community space or new spaces for youth, for art and for non-profit endeavors, in the public realm.

Self-Determination The right by which all peoples are entitled to determine their political status, pursue their economic, social and cultural development, freely dispose of their natural wealth and in no case be deprived of its own means of subsistence.

Service learning Engagement in deliberate action that benefits the public good in order to develop, reinforce or strengthen learning goals. 

Social Justice Using collective democratic action to create just, equitable, and sustainable for all members of society.  [Social Justice Resources]

Solidarity A union of interests, purposes, or empathies within a group that focuses on collective responsibility, authority, and interests.

Student Rights Specific freedoms and rights granted upon young people met to be upheld within the confines of a school building. [Student Rights Resources]

Unschooling The process of learning through life without formalized or institutionalized classrooms or schoolwork.  Relies on interpersonal relationships and natural learning to have effect on learners, rather than systems including textbooks and classroom teachers.  [Unschooling Resources]

Youth/Adult Partnerships Intentional relationships established between young people and adults designed to foster and support Youth Voice. [Youth/Adult Partnership Tips]

Youth Development A growth process occurring during teenage years. For most young people, this learning means meeting the basic personal and social needs to feel cared for and to be safe, valued, useful, and spiritually grounded; and building character, skills and competencies that permit functioning and contribution in daily life.

Youth Empowerment Young people gain the authority to assert their ability to make decisions and generate actions to cause change in their own lives and the world in which they live.

Youth Involvement A deliberate effort that centers on young peoples' participation in personal, social, institutional, cultural, and other forms of action throughout society.

Youth-Led An organization, project or process in which young people decide on what gets done and how it gets done. Youth led does not necessarily mean “no adult involvement or role.” [Youth-Led Service Learning Projects]

Youth Voice The ideas, opinions, experiences, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of young people. Variants include youth voices and youths voice.

Learn more about these terms at the CommonAction Blog.

All definitions here were created by The Freechild Project, with a few exceptions. Other sources include:

• Active Element Foundation (2002). Future 500: Youth Organizing and Activism in the United States.  Subway & Elevated Press. (here)

• Random House. (1997).  Random House Webster's College Dictionary.  Random House Reference.

• Numerous definitions were adapted from across the Internet.  For more information please contact The Freechild Project