Elevating Youth Voice and Civic Engagement in Schools and Communities
Elevating Youth Voice and Civic Engagement in Schools and Communities
“Youth voice is like solar power. It’s an abundant and renewable energy source for driving student, school, and community improvement. Schools that develop a plan, infrastructure, and process to foster youth voice and civic engagement become more inclusive and equitable in their educational approach, and the positive results on school culture, student growth and academic success are dramatic.”
For over 20 years, in some of the nation’s biggest cities, we have guided schools and communities in building dynamic youth voice and civic engagement strategies and infrastructures. Youth Engage will work as a catalyst that will help develop and launch your youth engagement strategy and provide ongoing coaching and training to your leadership team.
Building a Dream Vision
Identifying Strengths, Opportunities, and Challenges
Identifying and mapping the assets and constraints for achieving your vision is the next step. Youth Engage will provides facilitation of a SWOT analysis and offers experienced advice for maximizing strengths and overcoming barriers
Developing a Youth Voice and Civic Engagement Action Plan
Youth Engage will facilitate the development of a multi-year youth voice and civic engagement plan that focuses on what is needed for system-wide success and long-term improvement (i.e., people, resources, partners, curricula, political support).
Finding Resources, Trainings, and Partners to Catalyze the Plan
Every good youth civic engagement plan needs a mix of internal and external resources and partners. Youth Engage will help your team analyze, connect, and find resources and partnerships to catalyze your strategy.
Ongoing Leadership Coaching for Team Leaders
Going from good to great in youth voice and civic engagement takes time and support of key leaders. Youth Engage will provide ongoing coaching for the youth voice and engagement leadership team.
Research shows that harnessing the power of youth voice and civic engagement will improve your schools in multiple areas including:
Schools and communities can effectively use the power of youth voice and civic engagement to turbocharge student engagement and learning. This approach is powerful and cost effective. Youth engagement aligns well with existing goals of equity, student achievement, SEL, and post-secondary skill building, and it fits tremendously with a Whole Child Framework for student success.
1.
Transformative youth civic engagement is an equity-centered strategy built on respect for young people’s lived experiences, the catalytic power of student voice, and the importance of community- centered learning.
2.
Every young person deserves to be an empowered community member who knows how to effectively use their voice to effectively engage with issues, people and organizations and make positive change.
3.
Every young person should have an abundance of opportunities to participate in our democracy and learn civic skills in the classroom and outside of the school day.
Brian Brady has more than 25 years of experience working in youth civic engagement and youth development in nonprofits, schools, and cities with deep-rooted program development in Chicago and national scaling of program model to over twenty cities across the country. He is experienced in helping schools and districts develop their youth voice and civic engagement plans and infrastructure. We will help drive this process in a way that supports and trains all your leaders and stakeholders.
Brian Brady has more than 25 years of experience working in youth civic engagement and youth development in nonprofits, schools, and cities with deep-rooted program development in Chicago and national scaling of program model to over twenty cities across the country. He is experienced in helping schools and districts develop their youth voice and civic engagement plans and infrastructure. We will help drive this process in a way that supports and trains all your leaders and stakeholders.
