Youth empowerment

Template:Discrimination2 Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults.

Background

The concept of youth empowerment is grounded in the education philosophy and/or liberation theory of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, Mother Jones, Myles Horton, bell hooks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ivan Illich, and John Holt.

Youth empowerment is said to occur in homes, at schools, through youth organizations, government policy-making, and community organizing campaigns. The major structural activities where youth empowerment happens throughout society include community decision-making, organizational planning, and education reform.

Classroom activities that empower youth include student-centered learning, popular education, and service learning. In communities, youth empowerment takes form through youth voice, community youth development, and youth leadership programs.

Political action

Each major political party in the United States, including the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Green Party, as well as many major European, African, South American, and Australian political parties have statements supporting youth empowerment. Youth empowerment is also a central tenet of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which every country in the world (minus the U.S. and Somalia) has signed into law.

Outcomes

Youth empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to intergenerational equity, civic engagement and democracy building. Many local, state, provencial, regional, national, and international government agencies and nonprofit community-based organizations provide programs centered on youth empowerment. Activities involved therein may focus on youth-led media, youth rights, youth councils, youth activism, youth involvement in community decision-making, and other methods.

See also

List of youth empowerment-related articles

• Youth voice
• Youth activism
• Community youth development
• Empowerment
• Youth rights
• Youth participation
• Youth/adult partnerships
• Intergenerational equity

List of youth empowerment organization articles

• Freechild Project
• Global Youth Action Network
• Millennium Kids
• National Youth Rights Association
• Taking Children Seriously
• Youth Activism Project
• Not Back to School Camp
• Seeds of Peace

List of historical youth empowerment articles

• American Youth Congress
• Students for a Democratic Society
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
• The Newsboys Strike
• Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor
• National Youth Administration
• National Commission on Resources for Youth
• Company of Young Canadians

External examples

• Youth Taking Action - Promoting youth leadership and involvement in social issues worldwide.
• Global Youth Awards: Acknowledging youth achievement around the world
• Collegiate Forum, the first international student policy center
• National Youth Rights Association
• SoundOut
• The Freechild Project
• Youth On Board
• The Youth Innovation Fund
• The Wellspring, a web log about youth affairs opportunities in Australia and at the United Nations (UN).
• The Pro-Youth Pages
• Youth Coalition Santa Cruz, a Santa Cruz youth empowerment group run by youth.
• Uth TV, Original media created by and for youth.
• The YesYesNowNow.com "List" — A look at young people doing inspirational things around the world. Showing that youth culture can be a positive thing.
• YoMo Support & Resources for youth participation.
• Youth Liberation Front, an insurrectionary, anti-school form of youth empowerment
• Californians for Justice - CA
• Youth Together - Oakland, CA
• AYPAL - Oakland, CA
• Kids First - Oakland, CA
• Huatec - Bay Area, CA
• YMAC - San Francisco, CA
• YUCA - East Palo Alto, CA
• HOMEY - San Francisco, CA
• Students United
• Hope Street Youth Development - Topeka, KS
• Teen Empowerment - Boston, MA
• Yomo