 |
|
 |
|||||||
|
|||||||||
May Hot Topic: Youth Engagement and Activitism
Youth engagement and activism comprise key components of positive youth development. CYFERnet has many resources available to help you explore these topics.
Say Y.E.S. To Youth: Youth Engagement Strategies
From Penn State Cooperative Extension. Provides research-based information on youth engagement to youth development practitioners who plan to involve young people as partners on community teams.
Broadening the Bounds of Youth Development: Youth as Engaged Citizens
An overview of youth development theory from the Innovation Center. It examines the disconnect between youth development and civic engagement, and reflects on ways community leadership and civic activism can be incorporated into youth development.
Citizenship and Contribution
A fact sheet from Building Partnerships for Youth about citizenship and contribution; one of the 21 essential elements of youth development.
CITY Project 
The CITY Project empowers 14- to 18-year-olds to make positive changes in the highest-need areas of New York. It draws on the National 4-H resource Public Adventures, along with one of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s signature programs, Youth Community Action. Evaluation results from 2006 show significant gains for CITY Project youth in terms of civic engagement, workforce preparation and developmental assets.
Engaging Youth … On Their Turf: Creative Approaches to Connecting Youth Through Community
Focuses on how adolescent health professionals can utilize creative approaches to engaging youth in positive youth development. Also highlights six examples of programs that reach out to youth in non-traditional communities through parental engagement, athletics, service-learning, art, mentoring, and youth empowerment approaches. The publication provides some next steps for professionals to develop or adapt creative approaches like those described here in existing programs for youth. From the Healthy Teen Network.
FireStarter Youth Power Curriculum
Designed to promote youth leadership development through community engagement, this free curriculum includes activities to build community awareness, teamwork, and action planning skills. From the Freechild Project.
Youth Engagement: A Celebration Across Time and Culture: Framing the Issue
Highlights the history, lessons, best practices, and opportunities of meaningful youth engagement to create positive social change. From The Innovation Center.
Youth Policy Action Center
A Web site that engages young people and adults in democracy – changing policies that change young people’s lives.
Global Youth Action Network
A collaboration among youth and youth-serving organizations to share information, resources and solutions to promote greater youth engagement. The GYAN creates the opportunity for every young person to be heard, leverages their voices to impact national and global agendas and provides tools, recognition and financial support for youth who take positive action to improve our world - community by community.
Youth Acts, Community Impacts: Stories of Youth Engagement with Real Results
Do we have powerful examples of community impacts that are the result of youth acts? In response to this question, Youth Acts, Community Impacts offers eight case studies and a number of short profiles documenting efforts in the US and around the world, all connecting the dots between youth action and meaningful community change.
Arsalyn
Sponsored by the Ludwick Family Foundation, Arsalyn is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes youth civic and political engagement.
18to35
A non-partisan organization dedicated to engaging young adults in public policymaking.
TakingITGlobal
An online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved and take action in their local communities and globally.
The Freechild Project
A group of young people and youth advocates dedicated to making social change resources more accessible for young people around the world, especially those who have been historically denied participation.
For Previous Hot Topics, check here.
