Youth Engagement
in ACTION
Crystal L. Williams
Octavia Fugerson
In this session…
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Engaging young people as professionals
Building Social Capital
Strengthening Communication
Developmentally appropriate
Opportunities
How young people are being
engaged.
• 2 hours and 20 minutes a day on
average spent online
• 80 percent of their time online is spent
on a social networking site
• 90 percent of teenagers say they’ve
created an online profile for at least one
social networking site
• Facebook and YouTube are the ones
most popularly frequented by teens
Roiworld’s Teens & Social Networks Study (June 2010)
“Young people who are not
authentically engaged are placed on
the stage of life without the proper
preparation that they need to take
action in a professional arena.”
Young people as
professionals
Cultivate growth as a professional in their field
Identify strengths and provide opportunities
exercise talents
Challenge young people to pinpoint and pursue
their goals
Raise expectations to spark growth towards
excellence.
SCENARIO 1:
The Professional Foster Kid
Building Social Capital
• Provide opportunities for Bridging and Bonding
• Ensure that young people are given an
opportunity to contribute to the work indefinitely
• Think of multiple levels of engagement
• Think outside of the box (intentionally create
community collaboration)
• Find bridges to professional networks
• Ensure that young people are prepared to engage
“It’s Crucial! Young people who have
opportunities to be fully engaged with
adults and “practice” adult skills such as
reasoning, decision making, and selfregulation are thus strengthening the parts
of the brain responsible for those
functions.”
SCENARIO 2:
Properly Unprepared
“Young people don’t care how
much you know until they
know how much you care.”
–Author Unknown
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION for
the young person
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Misunderstanding
Hurt and misconception about “ALL adults”
Negative expectations
Inability to translate feelings into words
Lack of trust
Feeling it is pointless to communicate with adults
Others?
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION:
For the Adults
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Need to establish clear boundaries
Trauma informed
Inability to translate practically
Inconsistency
Inability to “get through” to the young person
Frustration
Others?
SCENARIO 3:
Miss Misunderstood
The POWER of Communication
“It’s Crucial! Young people who have
opportunities to be fully engaged with adults
and “practice” adult skills such as reasoning,
decision making, and self-regulation are thus
strengthening the parts of the brain
responsible for those functions.”
-Jim Casey Youth Engagement Issue Brief
Developmentally Appropriate
Opportunities
• Advancement for the young person as a
professional
• Engaging youth as more than simple
storytellers
• The importance of having youth use critical
thinking, analysis and decision making
THANK YOU!