Engaging and supporting youth as allies to advance community health, equity, and safety is one approach that funders and practitioners often overlook. They may discount the value of youth as full community members, doubt their readiness to contribute to productive discourse and decision making, or find it simpler to fall back on established power dynamics rather than invest in the cultivation and meaningful involvement of young people.
Yet, youth are often at the front lines in their experience of inequitable, unsafe, and unhealthy conditions, and as a generation, these young people have a long-term stake in community well-being. Youth engagement offers benefits for the young people involved. Available evidence also suggests that involving young people in health and safety efforts can improve community outcomes.
Insights on the untapped potential for youth engagement to improve community health and safety outcomes emerged from an 18-month working group of diverse nonprofits and funders convened by Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Rita Allen Foundation. Our working group explored strategies and practices for engaging youth to improve health equity, community health outcomes, and public safety. We found many compelling examples in which effective youth engagement improved health and safety not just for the young people involved, but for their communities as a whole. (abbreviated author introduction) #P4HEwebinarJune2023