Youth-Adult Power Sharing
I've spend much of my life as a youth.
Then I've spent much of my life working with youth.
Youth is an interesting category because we've all been there, but we age out of it. It's a shared but transitory identity.
Youth are commonly and often disempowered in US society, yet youth tend to be the force of change among various movements. The way youth are involved in that change, however, varies greatly. From conservative manifestations of the figure of "The Child" (see Lee Edelman's No Future) to shoving a child on stage to smile an accept an award, youth are often tokenized for their symbolism and not actually listened to or given decision making power.
Beyond empowering youth (youth don't need to be empowered, we just need to actually listen to them!), I believe in a youth/adult power-sharing model to collaborate on youth programming and social change. One of the most influential trainings/resources I've been exposed to is YES for Equity. Their model considers not only youth/adult power relationships and dynamics, but also a 3-point approach to working with youth in this way. These 3 points are: Critical Awareness, Skill Development, and Opportunities. All three have to be in place and they interlock throughout our lives. YES for Equity also learned, early on, that if a youth-focused movement did not also focus on racial justice, it wouldn't get very far. So, the model incorporated anti-racism as a key value and active behavior.
I am also a huge fan of PATCH - Providers and Teens Communicating for Health. I actually got to be a co-site coordinator for this program for a few years and it was a great experience all around. Youth get paid to deliver information to peers and healthcare providers using two different workshops. This addresses two major things - in the US, we don't educate about sexual health very much let alone a youth's legal rights in sexual health AND that healthcare providers do not get education on the best ways to work with adolescents. What's the best place to turn for both of those things? Youth are the experts!
Then I've spent much of my life working with youth.
Youth is an interesting category because we've all been there, but we age out of it. It's a shared but transitory identity.
Youth are commonly and often disempowered in US society, yet youth tend to be the force of change among various movements. The way youth are involved in that change, however, varies greatly. From conservative manifestations of the figure of "The Child" (see Lee Edelman's No Future) to shoving a child on stage to smile an accept an award, youth are often tokenized for their symbolism and not actually listened to or given decision making power.
Beyond empowering youth (youth don't need to be empowered, we just need to actually listen to them!), I believe in a youth/adult power-sharing model to collaborate on youth programming and social change. One of the most influential trainings/resources I've been exposed to is YES for Equity. Their model considers not only youth/adult power relationships and dynamics, but also a 3-point approach to working with youth in this way. These 3 points are: Critical Awareness, Skill Development, and Opportunities. All three have to be in place and they interlock throughout our lives. YES for Equity also learned, early on, that if a youth-focused movement did not also focus on racial justice, it wouldn't get very far. So, the model incorporated anti-racism as a key value and active behavior.
I am also a huge fan of PATCH - Providers and Teens Communicating for Health. I actually got to be a co-site coordinator for this program for a few years and it was a great experience all around. Youth get paid to deliver information to peers and healthcare providers using two different workshops. This addresses two major things - in the US, we don't educate about sexual health very much let alone a youth's legal rights in sexual health AND that healthcare providers do not get education on the best ways to work with adolescents. What's the best place to turn for both of those things? Youth are the experts!