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Youth Involvement
Background
Youth Involvement is a fairly new area of focus in education. We define youth as older children, generally in their teens. For some groups, the efforts in this field are focused only on developing academic skills that will lead to later employment. For others, youth involvement efforts focus on emotional needs of older children. Some groups focus on physical needs. There are also groups who combine more than one of these approaches. For this document, we are defining Youth Involvement as efforts to include older children in activities that prepare them for the future academically, emotionally, and physically.
Also, we have narrowed the topics we introduce in this document to those that are addressed in PEN's Civic Index Poll. This poll is based on a series of public forums and surveys conducted across the nation over a five year period. As a result of this effort, we have identified indicators or common qualities that encourage meaningful involvement in public education. As you read through the information in this series of support tools, carefully consider your community's situation.
How can you use the information and suggestions included in this material to help you build stronger civic involvement in education in your community?
PEN's Civic Index Indicators for Youth Involvement are:
Community and schools provide students with the education and skills to effectively participate in the political and civic process
Schools encourage students to participate in school and local district governance through such activities as student council, student advisory boards, and/or student members of the school board
Youth regularly engage in community service and volunteer activities
Youth are perceived as assets and contributors to the community
Using this Resource
As you explore the ideas presented in this material, you will find new ways to involve youth in your community. Schools, parents, youth organizations, and young people themselves all have a role to play. You will have the chance to:
Think about what youth involvement means to you and your community
Learn about new strategies to involve youth in schools, community and civic processes
Plan for ways to use this information in your school and community
Remember that by making use of this material, you have taken a first step in promoting Youth Involvement in your school community. However, the most important thing in exploring new materials is in deciding how to use the materials. You can choose to study them as an individual or you can look them over with others who are interested in this category.
Click here to download the Youth Involvement worksheet to help you work through the new things you have learned. You can use this as a tool to take down your own thoughts or as a worksheet for group discussion.
Exploring and Organizing the Indicators
Though each of the indicators is separate, each also connects with all the others. Youth involvement includes involving young people in the political and civic process, school activities and leadership, and community service and volunteering. All of these areas of youth involvement can increase the perception that youth are valuable contributors to the community. Youth involvement also can be an important tool for improving the success of youth in education, community, the workplace, and later as adults. In order to make our exploration of the Youth Involvement indicators simpler, we've combined them into two large topics.
Increasing youth political and civic participation.
For many years, one of the goals of education has been to prepare our youth to be tomorrow's leaders. While this goal remains, the approach we take has changed. Youth who have had actual experience in political and civic arenas will be better prepared for the future. Involving youth in programs that encourage them to participate in these types of activities will increase your Civic Index score.
To increase youth involvement, efforts should include strategies to:
provide youth with specific skills that will improve their involvement in political and civic events,
create partnerships with schools and other groups that provide "real" life experiences for youth, and
present and recognize the possible contributions of youth.
When youth participate regularly in these types of activities, they will develop skills and experiences that will help them in future roles as adult leaders in political and civic activities.
Involving youth to address their academic and social needs.
Successful youth involvement programs take resources. While some parents may be able to contribute to these types of activities, most parents cannot do so. Moreover, schools typically do not give large percentages of their resources to support this work. If these efforts are to succeed, businesses, corporations, and nonprofits will need to add to these efforts. When non-school based groups join schools, parents, and students in creating these programs, communities can raise their Civic Index scores.
To involve youth in processes to address their own academic and social needs, efforts should include strategies to:
Encourage youth to participate in service organizations and take leadership roles within and out of the school structure,
Promote volunteerism and service work, and
Create a culture that views youth in a positive way.
When school and community organizations support youth involvement, they are developing the leaders of tomorrow.
Overview of Research and Best Practices in this Field
National survey data have shown that young people in the United States are less interested in the political process and civic issues than older people, or young people of past decades. Educating students for good citizenship is of increasing concern. This has been shown in both research and practice. Also, recent research has shown that youth involvement strategies promote positive effects for at-risk youth such as increased achievement and decreased delinquency.
Below we identify four research-based approaches to involving youth in civic life:
Service learning allows students to combine service projects with academics. Schools partner with the community to create service opportunities for students that have clear goals and meet real needs. Evaluation, reflection, and student leadership are important parts of service learning programs.
Political activism provides youth the chance to organize and put forward their views on issues that most affect them. Strategies for youth activism include political education, public protest, and letter-writing campaigns.
Civic education is an important approach that schools and youth organizations can use to prepare young people to be responsible citizens. Instruction, discussion, community service, and leadership experience can all be part of a civic education program.
Youth development is based on the need to develop personal characteristics in young people that will help them become better citizens and more successful in public life. Youth development programs stress developing personal identity, responsibility, caring, and tolerance.
Possible benefits from these efforts include the following:
Youth learn skills and knowledge that help them contribute to society as adults, including leadership skills and how to actively participate in civic activities
Programs can help address anti-social behavior, low achievement, low attendance, and dropouts
Youth have "real" experiences that are often presented as words in books
Youth are given the opportunity to refine their own character and develop a personal identity
Youth are prepared for future employment and have skills that make them attractive to employers
As you work to increase parental involvement in your community, remember that each community is unique. Because of this, there are no one-size-fits-all methods to put these programs into action. However, when various stakeholders do their part in creating these programs, they help school staff, parents, students, organizations and others to see the value and advantage of working with each other to provide extra support to youth development, and how these programs are able to better support students' educational needs.
Key Issues
The information in this section is designed to provide an understanding of key issues related to efforts to encourage Youth Involvement in civic processes. As stated in the first section, we have limited the key issues to those related to the indicators.
Youth involvement deals with two concerns regarding education and civic participation: increasing civic ability and addressing the well-being of at-risk youth.
Youth involvement in schools, community, and civic life is both an end and a means for improving the well being of youth whether they are in or out of school. Involving youth in political and civic activities is an important goal in itself, thus creating the foundation for a more active citizenry where youth contribute to the community as a whole. At the same time, schools and youth organizations use youth involvement strategies as a way to address issues such as antisocial behavior, low achievement, and dropouts.
Research on these approaches provides important things to think about for organizers of youth involvement:
Key Issue 1: Interpreting Low Youth Involvement in Political Processes-What Do Youth Think about This Idea?
National surveys of youth point to a lack of involvement by youth in voting and political processes. However, communities should not automatically interpret these findings as a lack of interest or concern among young people. Research also has shown that youth are willing to become involved in more non-traditional and locally-based involvement such as volunteering and community service.
As evidenced by the number of schools taking on service projects as a part of the graduation requirements, youth are more than willing and able to be involved when given the opportunity.
Key Issue 2: Involve Both In- and Out-of-School Youth-Where Do these Programs Occur?
Though our immediate answer is that these programs occur strictly at school, school-based and non-school based groups offer effective programs. In fact, it is important to target and involve youth in school and non-school activities. Both groups have been shown to benefit from youth involvement and development. In reality, the issue is not where the youth are participating, but what the programs are designed to do. Do they provide academic support? Real world experiences? Health? Physical readiness?
When youth involvement programs are designed to meet specific needs, they will contribute to the development of skills and experiences that youth will find valuable for the future.
Key Issue 3: Youth as leaders in involvement programs-How can future leaders be made?
Developing future leaders is a key focus for many of these programs. Well-developed programs commonly find that their activities strengthen the development of youth leadership and decision-making experiences. Research has shown that when youth are given an opportunity to participate in leadership activities through these programs, the results come on two levels:
Students gain leadership and civic involvement skills that will later transfer to future life
Organizations gain improved planning and decision-making within the actual programs as they are better able to meet the needs of youth since their experiences help them better communicate their own needs
To create a large number of future leaders, community organizations and schools need to work together as partners to arrange programs that offer youth the opportunity to practice the skills and experiences they will need in the future.
Key Issue 4: Target Populations Most in Need of Youth Involvement-How Do We Get the Most Out of Our Efforts?
Though these programs work with all youth, demographics are important to consider in youth involvement programs. High poverty communities with large proportions of youth tend to have less civic involvement than low poverty communities. Also, youth with risk factors such as dropouts, pregnant teens, criminal offenders, and low academic achievers may gain the most benefit from youth involvement programs.
Creating programs that focus specifically on the communities with the lowest percentages of youth who are not involved in civic programs will help create groups of future leaders ready to address the future needs of the community.
Once you've completed the Civic Index Poll in your community find out how you can improve your score in this category by visiting the Tips and Strategies section.
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