As young people build their knowledge, skills and abilities to change the world, they should have positive, purposeful opportunities to develop and expand their commitment to positive social change. Youth-led programs are opportunities created by individuals and organizations where youth lead planning, decision-making, facilitation, reflection and evaluation on issues that matter to them, using actions they want to use. Through youth/adult partnerships, adults can act in supportive, engaging ways. However, youth always maintain the lead, direction and authority.
Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when they grow up; they should have the chance to live in one today. — Alfie Kohn
You Might Like…
- Actions for Youth to Change the World
- Issues Youth are Changing the World Through
- Strategies Youth are Using to Change the World
- The Freechild Project Guide to Youth-Led Programming by Adam Fletcher
Elsewhere Online
- The Freechild Project Youth-Driven Programming Guide by Adam Fletcher
- “Youth Driven Spaces (YDS)” by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality
- “A Comparison Of Youth-Driven And Adult-Driven Youth Programs: Balancing Inputs From Youth And Adults” by Reed Larson, Kathrin Walker, and Nickki Pearce for the Journal of Community Psychology
- “Strengthening Youth Driven Programming in Afterschool: DARE’s Youth Driven Programming Initiative” by the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development
- “What Does It Mean to be Youth-Driven?” by Lissa Soep for Youth Radio
- “Youth Driven Spaces” by The Neutral Zone
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Other tools are out there, too – share your thoughts in the comments below! For more information about how The Freechild Project can support youth engagement in youth-led programming in your community or organization, contact us.
Hi My Name is Charmet Findley (Shar-May), and I’m a Youth and Community Specialist w/ Harris County Youth Collective. We advocate for dual status youth as well provide peer to peer mentoring in RTCS, working with different departments such as DFPS and the Texas Department of Juvenile Probation and many other organizations to change policies, establishing and running focus groups involving youth in systems, as well as current or up to date problems in our community that pertain to youth. We also advocate for Teen Pregnancy and more Safe & Supportive Schools. We Know during these trouble times all Youth Organizations are experiencing difficulty and we would like to set up a National Youth Led Focus Group that centers itself around the problems we are facing so we can connect to resources as well as collaborate or establish new
partnerships on current/upcoming projects.