Category: Uncategorized
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Traits of Adult Allies
There are a lot of adults who want to make a difference in the world by becoming an adult ally to young people. However, many get frustrated because they don’t know what it takes. This article is about the traits of adult allies.
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Listening to Young People
In order to be adult allies, adults have to learn to listen to children and listen to youth. Listening can be simple, painless and easy; it can also be complex, painful and hard. Either way, adults have to learn to listen to young people in order to get past just hearing what they said. This…
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How Organizations Can Foster Youth Engagement
For almost 20 years, the Freechild Institute has been training and consulting youth-serving organizations about youth changing the world, including youth engagement and youth voice. We have learned a lot, including how organizations can engage youth. Here are the steps to transform and sustain organizational youth engagement.
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Youth Engagement in Government Agencies
The Freechild Institute supports youth engagement in government services. Our services include program planning, professional development, coaching services, project evaluation and more. We have also created a number of resources that may be valuable to government agencies. Youth Engagement Mapping—This self-guided process can examine current and potential youth engagement by identifying data, processes and other…
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Understanding Roles for Youth in Community Development
This week I’ve had the honor of participating in a Thinkery in London with the Community Development Journal, an international academic publication produced by the Oxford University Press. Along with providing a keynote address to provoke conversation and growth in the field, I’ve sat in on three days of meetings with their international advisory board.…
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Don’t Mimic The Monster: Engage Everyone
You know the state of the world today. We say we’re going to engage the masses, but fail miserably. We want to retain everyone, but they still don’t show up or quickly drop out. We want to connect everyone, but everyone says or acts too busy. We want to empower people, but still they stare at their phones and…
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Youth + Social Change through Youth Forums
Placing youth voice at the center of social change, Youth Forums can provide an engaging, empowering way to develop consensus, discuss issues and build community among youth in a community. As a structured, purposeful event, Youth Forums are meant to give youth an opportunity to express their ideas, opinions, and needs to adults or other youth. Youth…
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Structural Adultism
Structural adultism may be apparent in any instance of systemic bias where formalized limitations or demands are placed on people simply because of their young age. These limitations are often reinforced through physical force or police actions. This is increasingly seen as a form of gerontocracy, explained by James Carville when he wrote, “This is…
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Adam F. C. Fletcher
Adam F. C. Fletcher co-founded The Freechild Project with a group of youth advocates from around the world in September 2001. The mission then, as now, is to advocate, inform, and celebrate social change led by and with young people around the world, especially those who have been historically denied the right to participate. Adam has…
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Youth Engagement in Government
Democracy demands active, involved and engaged citizens taking almost-constant action to make societies better places. Counting as more than 25% of the human population, children and youth are routinely, consistently and constantly left out of governments at all levels today. However, growing numbers of local, state, national and international government bodies are engaging young people.…
Freechild Institute for Youth Engagement 