Resource Details
Youth Engagement in Collective Impact Initiatives
Author: Jessica Shakesprere, Mica O'Brien, and Eona Harrison | Year of Publication: 2020
Youth engagement is the meaningful and sustained involvement of young people in efforts to create positive social change. This approach requires youth-serving organizations to rebalance traditional power dynamics between adults and young people, enabling youth to take on decisionmaking responsibilities. Collective impact initiatives such as Promise Neighborhoods are well positioned to meaningfully incorporate youth input and leadership in program design, implementation, and evaluation. Promise Neighborhoods in West Philadelphia; Southeast Alaska; and Knox County, Kentucky; are doing just that, engaging young people through school- and community-based initiatives.