Team Up With Youth!
A Guide for Local and State Governments
Why team up with youth?
Youth under age 18 can’t vote. But they can contribute to civic life, and many of them already have opinions about how to improve the services their local and State governments provide. To tap into the energy and passion of young people, a large number of local and State governments across the country are soliciting their opinions on everything from schools to homelessness to city planning to violence prevention. When youth have a say in local and State decisionmaking, they gain self-confidence, trust, and practical knowledge.
Communities benefit when youth get involved. Adults who interact with young people on government councils or who see the positive things that youth can accomplish will be more likely to view young people positively and to listen to their needs. When communities empower their youth by giving them leadership opportunities, support from caring adults, and chances to make a difference, the communities in turn become safer, healthier, and better places to live.
How can local or State government team up with youth?
- Start a city or statewide youth council
- Hold an annual local or statewide youth summit
- Appoint youth representatives to your school board, or organize a student advisory council for your public schools
- Hold neighborhood meetings or “town halls” with youth
- Establish an annual youth volunteering day or week
- Recruit volunteer or paid peer educators for community outreach programs
- Appoint youth to community task forces
- Create a grant program for youth civic engagement projects and involve youth in the grant review process
- Invite young people to testify about bills that affect them
- Invite young people to suggest ideas for new legislation
- Organize regular forums for youth to communicate with police
- Ask youth to join commissions studying issues that affect them such as education, violence, arts, health, poverty, recreation, and so on
- Start a youth court in which juvenile offenders are judged by their peers, who act as judge, jury, prosecutor, and defense
- Hire youth as poll workers during elections
A Perfect Union
- In Nashville, Tennessee, members of the Mayor’s Youth Council are liaisons to a number of local boards and commissions related to health, transit, the arts, social services, parks and recreation, education, and libraries.
- Since 1997, the city of Hampton, Virginia, has hired two part-time youth planners who work 15 hours a week after school and oversee youth-related aspects of the city’s comprehensive plan. For instance, in 2001 the youth planners researched transportation options for young people. The city also has a 24-member youth commission, which represents the ideas and opinions of Hampton’s young people. The commission also allocates funds to other youth groups and activities.
- The city of Hurst, Texas, sponsors a Youth in Government program in which 11 area students attend monthly seminars on youth and municipal issues and complete an independent project, under the guidance of a city council member.
Resources
Print
Collaborating To Promote Positive Youth Development. Author: National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth. In FYSB Update, May 2006. Available at ncfy.acf.hhs.gov.
Political Empowerment at the Local Level: A Review of Youth Civic Engagement Efforts in 11 U.S. Cities. Author: Summer in the City Program. 2004. Available from the Council of U.S. Mayors at www.usmayors.org.
The Youth Involved Process. In Best Practices in Youth Development in PublicPark and Recreation Settings. Authors: P. Witt and J. Crompton. 2002. Available from National Recreation and Park Association at www.nrpa.org.
Web
Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, Academy for Educational Development
www.aed.org
Innovation Center for Community & Youth Development
www.theinnovationcenter.org
Institute for Youth, Education, & Families, National League of Cities
www.nlc.org/IYEF
National Conference of State Legislatures
www.ncsl.org
National Youth Court Center
www.youthcourt.net
National Youth Leadership Council
www.nylc.org
Team Up With Youth! A Guide for Local and State Governments was developed by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth (NCFY) for the Family and Youth Services Bureau; Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Administration for Children and Families; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on positive ways to work with youth, please go to ncfy.acf.hhs.gov, or contact NCFY at (301) 608-8098 or ncfy@acf.hhs.gov. Revised June 2006.
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