Youth organizing (YO) is a community-based practice that engages young people to collectively identify and analyze issues impacting them and use public action to advocate for solutions. [16] YO draws from community organizing, which attempts to catalyze social and political change by building collective power within marginalized groups and communities, [17] and from positive youth development, which emphasizes the capacity of all young people to thrive when they have access to opportunities and supports. [18]
More than 300 youth organizing groups are active in the United States. [19] While youth from all backgrounds are engaged in YO, many have membership bases that are mostly BIPOC, with significant representation of immigrant and LGBTQIA+ youth. Youth organizing groups often recruit young people from neighborhoods, schools, or cities to build collective power to address issues and conditions impacting their lives. They often meet weekly, with paid organizers—usually young adult members of the same communities, mostly alumni of the organizations—conducting outreach and facilitating meetings. Young people build community, identify and research shared issues, and plan action campaigns to effect change. Political education (on topics such as social movements, oppression, and histories of marginalized communities) and training in organizing skills (including outreach, facilitating meetings, conducting research, and speaking to the media) are woven into meetings and summer training sessions.
YO groups strive to be truly youth-led spaces and often use consensus models of decision-making. Members at all levels of experience are encouraged to participate in discussions, contribute to planning, and engage in actions including social media campaigns, meeting with decision-makers, providing public testimony at hearings, and joining protests. Young people hold leadership roles in campaigns as well as within the organization, working alongside paid staff to recruit and mentor newer members. Besides running their own campaigns, many YO groups collaborate on larger citywide and statewide campaigns with other youth- and adult-led groups.
Survey responses from YO participants in our study demonstrate the extent and breadth of youth leadership:
Youth Organizing Participant Survey
Percent of YO group participants who reported that they often or always:
... came to most meetings on the issues I care about.
... came to big meetings, events, and actions.
... participated in meetings to help make decisions.
... helped with outreach to get other youth involved.
... played a role in leading the organization.
... planned and/or facilitated meetings
N=180
83%
73%
66%
59%
45%
34%
YO practices closely align with high-quality SEL approaches. Participants work in close collaboration and mutual accountability with peers and adults, engage in work that has authentic personal value, and exercise autonomy and decision-making authority. [20] Fostering the critical consciousness to understand social inequality and challenge it, individually and collectively—the “transformational” aspect of transformational SEL—is a central goal of youth organizing. Youth organizing groups approach community problems through a critical analysis of race, class, and other systems of oppression. [21] They provide an opportunity structure for engaging in authentic civic tasks, including discussing social and political issues with peers, constructing agendas, developing action plans, contacting the media, negotiating with decision-makers, and engaging in protest and public action. [22]
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Footnotes
[16] E. Braxton, W. Buford, & L. Marasigan, Field Scan, (Brooklyn, NY: Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing, 2013).
[17] J. Conner, “Youth organizers as young adults: their commitments and contributions,” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, n. 4 (2011): 923-942.
[18] R. M. Lerner, J. B. Almerigi, C. Theokas & J. V. Lerner, “Positive youth development,” Journal of Early Adolescence, 25, n. 1 (2005): 10-16.
[19] S. Valladares, M. Renée Valladares, M. Garcia, K. Baca, B. Kirshner, V. Terriquez, J. Sanchez, & K. Kroehle, 20 years of youth power: The 2020 National Youth Organizing Scan (New York: Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing, 2020).
[20] J. A. Durlak & R. P. Weissberg, The impact of after-school programs that promote personal and social skills (Chicago: Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, 2007); Farrington, et al., 2012; R. Halpern, P. Heckman, & R. Larson, Realizing the potential of learning in middle adolescence (Chicago: Erikson Institute, 2012); J. Nagaoka, C. A. Farrington, S. B. Erlich, & R. Heath, Foundations for young adult success: A developmental framework (Chicago: University of Chicago Consortium for Chicago School Research 2015).
[21] K. Mediratta, S. Shah & S. McAlister, Community organizing for stronger schools (Cambridge: Harvard Education Press, 2009; R. Watts & O. Guessous, “Sociopolitical development: the missing link in research and policy on adolescents,” in P. Noguera, S. A. Ginwright, & J. Cammarota (Eds)., Beyond resistance! Youth activism and community change: New democratic possibilities for practice and policy for America’s youth (New York: Routledge, 2006).
[22] B. Kirshner, “Power in numbers: Youth organizing as a context for exploring civic identity,” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19, no. 3, (2009): 414-440; Rogers & Terriquez, 2013; M. A. Diemer, A. Pinedo, J. Bañales, C. J. Matthews, M. B. Frisby, E. M. Harris & S. McAlister “Recentering action in Critical Consciousness,” Child Development Perspectives, 15, n. 1, (2021): 12-17.
