Youth: An Overlooked Resource

Simply put, youth need to be engaged to fully develop and a democratic society needs engaged citizens -- youth and adults -- to prosper. Youth civic engagement addresses issues related both to healthy development and the health of our democratic society. There is abundant research attesting to the lack of opportunities young people have for meaningful involvement in the civic life of their communities. There is equally compelling evidence that young people have contributions to make long before the legal attainment of adulthood. The prevailing attitude, however, is that young people are either problems to be fixed or adults-in-waiting.

Increasingly we are coming to understand that young people need ties and relationships to develop as healthy individuals and to become invested in their communities and the larger society. Lack of engagement and lack of connection make it less likely that young people will become contributing, self-sufficient adults and, ultimately, threaten our future as a democratic, unified society. This assessment is confirmed by a survey on youth attitudes conducted by the National Association of Secretaries of State, which concludes:

Young people today lack interest, trust and knowledge about American politics, politicians, and public life generally. In these and other respects, the future of American democracy seems gloomy indeed.

This lack of interest may in large part be lack of opportunity. A recent report by Public/Private Ventures found that nine out of ten young people would work to improve their neighborhood. Less than half, however, felt that adults listen to teens and almost as many believe that adults fear teens.

What are needed are new, authentic avenues for youth participation and influence. To achieve this, adult community members must recognize the ways in which they label and exclude youth and work toward new societal norms that include young people, as a matter of course, in the public life of the community. This is the challenge for community foundations: Can we create dialogues, activities and processes that will bring youth and adults together as partners to create a more just and equitable society?