Approaches

Youth civic engagement operates on several levels:

• Offering better outcomes for youth;
• Improving the community;
• Changing the way youth view, relate to and participate in the community; and
• Changing the way that adults, institutions and the community as a whole view youth.

Youth civic engagement can be a powerful development tool, offering young people relationships, networks, challenges, and opportunities – fundamental ingredients of positive development. It is an approach that recognizes youth as valued resources with unique insights and perspectives on community problems. As it challenges youth to contribute, it also nurtures social connections. The National Network for Youth characterizes what it calls community youth development as "working in partnership with young people to strengthen or regain their ties to community -- whether it be family, neighborhood, schools or friends -- and working with communities to value and support youth." This clearly goes beyond a prevention model that sees youth as problems and defines outcomes in negatives -- not getting pregnant, not using drugs, not dropping out of school, not committing crime -- to one that appreciates youth as producers, contributors, creators and leaders.

Civic engagement transcends volunteerism. The aforementioned NASS survey reveals a paradox: while youth volunteerism is on the rise, young people, as a group, have become more and more disengaged. Some postulate that the person-to-person nature of most youth volunteerism, while valuable, lacks connection to the larger society. In contrast, youth civic engagement links youth to broader communal or societal goals and, in so doing, develops a sense of stake and ownership.

Youth civic engagement as a youth development strategy is still in its formative stages. Examples abound, but many should be viewed as evolving strategies. Some include:

• youth organizing, youth advocacy, public work, social change -- young people identify issues of importance to them and their communities, research and analyze the causes, issues and solutions, and develop and carry out action plans to effect social change;
• youth in governance, youth leadership -- young people and adults share authentic governance responsibilities on nonprofit and public boards;
• youth court, peer court -- an alternative form of juvenile justice, employing positive peer influence as well as accountability, in which young people hold positions of authority;
• youth employment -- young people obtain income-producing job training and experience working in positions of public trust and responsibility;
• youth media -- through print, broadcast or electronic media, young people have a significant voice in the world; and
• youth in philanthropy -- at its best, engages young people in grantmaking that is intentional in its social change outcomes and, by funding only projects conceived, planned and carried out by young people, influences how institutions in the community view the role of youth.

Thoughtful approaches to youth civic engagement embody the following "principles of vital practice for youth and civic development," identified at a Wingspread conference dedicated to this topic in 1996:

• Young people are producers.
• Young people’s intelligence, talents, experiences and energy deserve respect.
• Public work and skill building link together.
• Young people participate in governance.
• Young people and adults develop committed, reciprocal relationships.
• Cooperative action is valued.
• Young people’s public work is visible.
• Young people’s efforts connect with the large civic challenges and questions of meaning in our time.
• Youth work contributes to community and institutional change.