Are you trying to reach new communities with your youth programs?
Early in my career, I came to understand that what draws young people to programs is adults that take a genuine interest in them. Building a genuine, positive relationship with a young person takes time and patience. One of the most effective ways to make it happen is through youth-adult partnerships.
According to Adam Fletcher from The Freechild Project, a youth-adult partnership is an intentional relationship between young people and adults that relies on adults acknowledging and empowering the ability, perspectives, ideas, and knowledge of young people throughout the relationship.
I was part of a year-long diversity and inclusion cohort here at the University of Minnesota that produced a series of videos. Among them is an educational video that shows the benefits of youth-adult partnerships in youth programming. In it, 4-H alumni and 4-H volunteer, Terry Williams, gives his account of how his mentor, another 4-H volunteer, “helped me become who I am today.”
This phenomenon is not well studied or documented. One of the few existing studies on the effect of youth-adult partnerships was conducted by The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development (a division of National 4-H Council). It showed that "involving young people in decision making provides them with the essential opportunities and supports -- challenge, relevancy, voice, cause based action, skill building, adult structure, and affirmation -- that are consistently shown to help young people achieve mastery, compassion, and health.”
Another excellent resource is this one: Making it Work: Guide to Successful Youth-Adult Partnerships.
Are you ready to use this approach? These questions developed by the Freechild Project are an inventory of your readiness to develop partnerships with young people:
You are welcome to comment on this blog post. We encourage civil discourse, including spirited disagreement. We will delete comments that contain profanity, pornography or hate speech--any remarks that attack or demean people because of their sex, race, ethnic group, etc.--as well as spam.
Early in my career, I came to understand that what draws young people to programs is adults that take a genuine interest in them. Building a genuine, positive relationship with a young person takes time and patience. One of the most effective ways to make it happen is through youth-adult partnerships.
According to Adam Fletcher from The Freechild Project, a youth-adult partnership is an intentional relationship between young people and adults that relies on adults acknowledging and empowering the ability, perspectives, ideas, and knowledge of young people throughout the relationship.
I was part of a year-long diversity and inclusion cohort here at the University of Minnesota that produced a series of videos. Among them is an educational video that shows the benefits of youth-adult partnerships in youth programming. In it, 4-H alumni and 4-H volunteer, Terry Williams, gives his account of how his mentor, another 4-H volunteer, “helped me become who I am today.”
This phenomenon is not well studied or documented. One of the few existing studies on the effect of youth-adult partnerships was conducted by The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development (a division of National 4-H Council). It showed that "involving young people in decision making provides them with the essential opportunities and supports -- challenge, relevancy, voice, cause based action, skill building, adult structure, and affirmation -- that are consistently shown to help young people achieve mastery, compassion, and health.”
Another excellent resource is this one: Making it Work: Guide to Successful Youth-Adult Partnerships.
Are you ready to use this approach? These questions developed by the Freechild Project are an inventory of your readiness to develop partnerships with young people:
- Do I respect and value the opinions of others no matter how old they are?
- Do I seek to involve a diverse group of people in my programs and projects?
- What is my motivation for working with youth?
- Do I expect one person to represent the opinions of all youth?
- Am I willing to let go of some of my own control in order to share responsibility?
- Why do I want to work with youth?
-- Judith Conway, Extension educator
You are welcome to comment on this blog post. We encourage civil discourse, including spirited disagreement. We will delete comments that contain profanity, pornography or hate speech--any remarks that attack or demean people because of their sex, race, ethnic group, etc.--as well as spam.
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