Introduction

The Freechild Project has found that young people and adults can work together to create powerful, sustainable social change through Youth-Adult Partnerships.  A Youth-Adult Partnership is an intentional relationship between young people and adults that relies on adults acknowledging and empowering the ability, perspectives, ideas, and knowledge of young people throughout the relationship.

Point to Ponder

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” —Eleanor Roosevelt, from a speech to the United Nations, 1958

Resources

The following are websites, organizations and publications that have been identified by youth researchers at Freechild to encourage young people and adults to go further in their relationships by establishing authentic partnerships for social change. For more information about Youth-Adult Partnerships, read our Tip Sheet.

Websites

YouthNet: Youth-Adult Partnerships - This webpage from Family Health International includes details about YAPs at the organization, including what they look like, do, and achieve.
 

Join Hands Day - A national day of service intended to provide young people and adults with an opportunity to work in partnership for a better world. A powerful tool packed with activities, publications, statistics and more!

Texas Network of Youth Services - Youth-Adult Partnerships - Includes definitions, tools, and more.

Publications

Youth-Adult Partnerships Tip Sheet - A basic information guide to creating and sustaining young people & adults working together.

What are Youth-Adult Partnerships? - A summary that includes a comprehensive bibliography.

Working Shoulder to Shoulder: Stories and Strategies of Youth-Adult Partnerships That Succeed - Deborah Fisher

Hart's Ladder of Children's Participation - The classic measurement tool adapted by youth-serving organizations to analyze the form and potential of youth-adult partnerships.

Youth-Adult Partnerships - Provides an interesting continuum to measure the relationship between young people and adults by echoing Hart's Ladder.