Youth Guided

Whether marching to advocate for their rights, being active members of their families, or organizing to impact change, youth voice is powerful. How do agencies amplify and use that voice?

Creating a youth guided system of care leads to more effective and accessible services and supports. Youth guided organizations create safe environments that enable young people to gain self-sustainability in accordance with the cultures and beliefs with which they identify. A youth guided approach recognizes that there is a continuum of power that should be shared with young people based on their understanding and maturity in a strengths-based change process.

Youth Engagement

Youth engagement is more than just listening to what youth are saying about an agency’s programs. It’s about creating a space where youth feel safe to share their true thoughts, and know their ideas will not only be heard but put into policy and practice.

Youth engagement is “the result when young people are involved in responsible, challenging actions to create positive social change.” Youth have the power to change the children’s mental health system.

The dimensions of youth engagement can be broken down into four parts:

Connection

Connection with a youth means meeting them where they are at, or where they feel comfortable. Outreach is a huge piece of this. Going into the community to form real, genuine connections can be the catalyst that inspires youth to get involved in a more meaningful way. Outreach can be done through connecting with local schools, drop-in centers (like those managed by The Link and Safezone), and library programming.
Acceptance

Acceptance means knowing that despite any differences, the youth voice is not lesser than that of adults. It is important to be genuine, and to realize that involving youth isn’t about “helping” them. It’s about amplifying their voices and assisting in the growth of their existing strengths. When youth are accepted as they are, and seen as influencers, they are changing the narrative.
Involvement

Involvement means making youth part of the big decisions. Where can youth serve on boards, councils and leadership teams? By involving youth, we have access to their fresh, powerful voices and we show youth that their words are of great value. It is important to not just select one youth participant, but rather several from various backgrounds, races, socioeconomic statuses, sexual orientations and genders. By doing this, it ensures that everyone gets a seat at the table and gains access to a narrative that accurately represents the community as a whole.
Transformation

Transformation means doing something with the feedback youth give. It is not enough to simply listen to the valuable information that youth give. It is important to take that feedback, and make the necessary changes. Youth are experts on their own lived experiences, and have excellent insight into impacting effective change. We must show youth that not only do their voices matter, but that they are also powerful. This is key in keeping youth involved. It is one thing to tell youth that their voice has the power to change the way things are done. It is even more powerful to show youth the impact of their words.

Continuing the Work

There’s no magic formula for youth engagement. Rather, it must be uniquely tailored to each agency and community. However, the basic building blocks of connection, acceptance, involvement and transformation serve as a framework by which to create effective program engagement. Change starts with youth.

Youth MOVE National
Youth MOVE (Motivating Others through Voices of Experience) is a youth-guided, chapter driven organization dedicated to improving services and systems that support positive growth and development by uniting the voices of individuals who have lived experience in various systems including mental health, juvenile justice, education, and child welfare.

Youth MOVE Minnesota
Youth MOVE is a program of the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health (MACMH) and is an available resource if you are interested in starting a Youth MOVE chapter at your local school or any area in Minnesota.