Why are youth a population of interest?

Youth, often defined as people ages 15-25, are in a critical time of their physical, psychological, and social development. This is also a time when people can realize their leadership potential and their ability to be changemakers in their community. Youth face barriers in becoming involved in their communities, such as the assumption that they are naïve, inexperienced, or incompetent and therefore have nothing of value to contribute to discussions of policy and implementation. However, the only ones that can speak to how the decisions of policymakers impact youth are youth, and therefore focused efforts must be taken to ensure that their voices are included at the table.

Furthermore, the oppressive systems that impact marginalized groups such as people of color, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and women do not only impact adults, but begin at birth and so youth which face these systemic barriers need

What is youth empowerment?

Broadly, empowerment is a process that increases an individual’s or community’s sense of agency over their political, economic, and social environment in order to improve their quality of life. Youth empowerment centers on young people as agents of change within themselves and their communities. Workshops, trainings, seminars, and other tools, particularly youth-led practices, serve as mechanisms to increase this sense of agency.

See the video below featuring Nava Ghalili focusing on empowering youth “to be the light of the world”.

What is youth organizing?

“Youth organizing is a strategy that trains young people to engage in collective action to improve institutions in their communities that directly affect them… Youth organizing adopts the twin goals of fostering youth development and effecting social change.” (The Value of Youth Organizing) Youth organizing can benefit communities by creating a leadership pipeline, a system that trains youth to be civically engaged beyond their involvement in youth organizing and to mentor and empower future generations of leaders. Our Young Environmental Justice Advocates Academy (YEJAA) is an example of a leadership pipeline as we equip our youth with the fundamental knowledge of environmental justice while training them on how to execute a community education campaign.

Sources

Conner, Jerusha. “The Value of Youth Organizing” Cyber.Harvard.Edu, 2022, https://cyber.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.harvard.edu/files/KBWTheValueofYouthOrganizing2012.pdf.
Jennings, Louise B., et al. "Toward a critical social theory of youth empowerment." Journal of Community Practice 14.1-2 (2006): 31-55.