Youth Leadership and Engagement

Youth have the capacity to meaningfully engage and be leaders in addressing equity issues that affect them in their communities now. Engaging youth in civic life is part of healthy development has been shown to benefit both the youth and the communities in which they live and learn.

Our Approach

We adapted Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation—widely used with adults—for youth, and this ladder offers a starting point to understand the different levels of youth engagement. We adjust youth engagement strategies accordingly to consider youth’s social and cognitive development, even within a year and certainly over time. In our approach, we work with both adults and youth to develop equitable relationships so that their collaboration is reciprocal and mutually beneficial. We ensure that adults are mindful of youth’s varied needs and access to resources and opportunities and remove any barriers the youth might face to support meaningful engagement, and also, not assume that youth from disadvantaged and marginalized communities face only challenges and have nothing positive in their lives to build on. We work with youth to build and strengthen their abilities to share their ideas, collaborate, and lead autonomously, and effectively communicate with adults.

How We Can Help

  • Evaluate youth engagement and youth leadership initiatives.
  • Advise and assist funders, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations design and implement a program to build and strengthen youth leadership.
  • Conduct research about youth engagement and youth leadership practices and synthesize and use the findings to inform program design and implementation.
Have questions? We have answers.

Related Projects

The New Orleans Youth Master Plan is a network of youth-serving organizations, young people, and other community stakeholders who are working on building out a 10-year multisector plan to improve the lives of children and youth in New Orleans. Community ...
Community Science conducted a multiyear process and outcome evaluation of a leadership program designed to train the next generation of equity–focused public health leaders. The study design followed participants through various stages of their training and 12 months after program ...
Children International is assessing their 5 year strategy focusing on reducing poverty across 13 countries. Specifically they are addressing health, education, and employment needs.  Community Science is supporting the organization's effort by provide Strategy Evaluation support. 00812 ...
President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA) in February 2014 to advance opportunities and break down systemic barriers for boys and young men of color. MBKA is now a core initiative of the Obama Foundation addressing disparities from ...
Youth engagement strategies produce economic benefits both to the youth and the communities in which they live. Actively engaging youth in their communities strengthens social ties, fosters a sense of community, weakens the cycle of poverty, and inspires youth to ...
The Catholic Diocese of Arlington Migration & Refugee Services (CDAMRS) engaged Community Science to assess the needs of refugee youth and their families in Northern Virginia and the issues faced by agencies in the area that serve these youth and ...
As part of a subcontract to Campaign Consultation’s work for the Corporation for National & Community Service, Community Science reviewed mentoring and non-mentoring programs available to youth aging out of foster care to determine what worked and didn’t work and ...
The Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing engaged Community Science to develop a written guide for youth-organizing groups that would enable them to strengthen their organizations. The guide was not intended to replace the use of skilled consultants and other resources, ...
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation engaged Community Science to evaluate Kansas City’s effort to ensure the success of its future generations by increasing their access to caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, marketable skills and opportunities to give back ...