Abstract

According to the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, two core principles of partnering adults and youth in serving communities are the equality of the relationship and utilizing an asset-based approach. This effective practice shares ten techniques for involving youth in community building based on these principles and found in the Innovation Center's 2001 Building Community toolkit. These practices come from the article, "Community Includes Youth" from Wingspread Journal (Volume 17, issue 3, 1995) by John P. Kretzmann.

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Issue

Effectively involving youth in building community takes partnerships with adults and an awareness of place and history. This model can unleash positive and sustainable results.

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Action

According to the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, two core principles of partnering adults and youth in serving communities are the equality of the relationship and using an asset-based approach. Effective practices that build on this foundation include:

1. 1. Always start with the gifts, talents, knowledge, and skills of young people — never with their needs and problems.
   2. Always lift up the unique individual, never the category to which the young person belongs (e.g., "Maria, the great soccer player," not "Maria, the 'at-risk-youth'").
   3. Share the convictions that (a) every community is filled with useful opportunities for young people to contribute and (b) there is no community institution or association that can't find a useful role for young people.
   4. Try to distinguish between real community-building work and games or fakes — because young people know the difference.
   5. Fight age segregation in every way you can. Work to overcome the isolation of young people.
   6. Start to get away from the principle of aggregation of people by their sameness. Don't put everyone who can't read in the same room. It makes no sense.
   7. Move as quickly as possible beyond youth "advisory boards" or councils, especially those boards with only one young person on them.
   8. Cultivate many opportunities for young people to teach and lead.
   9. Reward and celebrate every creative effort, every contribution made by young people. Young people can help take the lead here.
   10. In every way possible, amplify this message to young people: "We need you! Our community cannot be strong and complete without you."

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Context

Building Community: A Tool Kit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change was created by the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development and the National 4-H Council to provide a framework and specific tools to help promote change in communities. Resources were provided by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development seeks, tests, and promotes practices that achieve positive development for youth, communities, and society. In strategic partnership with key individuals and institutions, and with youth and adult staff and volunteers who share a devotion to the potential of youth development, the Innovation Center works to enrich the youth development field. The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development is a project of the Tides Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people working for social change by providing a comprehensive set of core management services to new and existing nonprofit organizations.

The National 4-H Council works to advance the 4-H youth development movement, partnering with the cooperative extension system, communities, and other organizations to provide technical support and training, develop curricula, create model programs, and promote positive youth development to fulfill its mission.

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Citation

Innovation Center for Community and Youth. Building Community: A Tool Kit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change . Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development/Tides Center, 2001.

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Source Documents

Related Practices

• Generating a list of 100 ways teens can serve their communities

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