Youth as Equal Partners

By Meredith Schonfeld-Hicks, State Strategies Program Manager

Realizing a vision for true youth adult partnerships is a big challenge. Too often individuals and organizations wind up tokenizing youth and engaging them in partnerships that are not authentic. But many great individuals and organizations are making the time and effort to develop authentic youth adult partnerships in which each party has the opportunity to make suggestions and decisions and in which the contribution of each is recognized and valued. A youth-adult partnership is one in which adults work in full partnership with young people on issues facing youth and/or on programs and policies affecting youth. These partnerships value the contributions of both parties and appreciate the differences the individuals bring to the relationship and their contributions to an end product or process.

I was recently facilitating a youth-adult partnerships training with a group of people who were all working towards the goal of teen pregnancy prevention and comprehensive sex education in their communities. The room was filled with youth and adults from various community organizations throughout the state. At first, many of the participants seemed really confident that they knew all about youth-adult partnerships and they were doing them really well. But as I began the training and explained the meaning behind true youth adult partnerships that value the contributions of both parties and share decision making, they seemed a little less sure and a bit anxious.

Addressing our generational stereotypes can be difficult but there is power to be gained by naming them and being able to recognize when they are happening. Our training group divided into two groups, one for adults and one for youth. We explored different stereotypes that each group held about the other, discussed challenges that occur within their current relationships and talked about our visions for a successful youth-adult partnership. Participants responded to loaded questions such as, “Adults never_______.” “Youth always __________.” “One myth about young people I would dispel is _______________.” “One thing I love about adults is __________.” These allowed the participants to address their own stereotypes and discuss them with others.

Some very specific and thoughtful ideas came out of these conversations. Youth talked about juggling the multiple demands of school, sports and being an activist. Adults discussed working long hours and the challenge of staying late to host meetings at a time when youth could attend. The technology divide was brought up as a barrier for understanding youth and a method for engaging youth. Both groups mentioned relationships with youth and adults that were meaningful and supportive to them. The groups discussed the importance of having clear expectations within the relationship for both parties, positive ways to provide feedback on projects and ideas.

Towards the end of the day we joined back together for a full group discussion about the challenges and exciting possibilities that come from true youth adult partnerships. Several of the adults had “lighbulb moments” that occurred by listening to the youth in the room as equals and seeing their responses to the previous statements. One of the adults commented to the group that they had always thought they were listening to youth, but hearing the youth discussion that day made them realize that they were never truly engaged and had not been taking what youth said seriously. Another organizational leader spoke about some of the organizational changes they would make by providing more transparency to the youth around decision making for the youth programming and budget and allow youth to help make those decisions.

Engaging in authentic youth-adult partnerships is a process that may take a while and requires complete organizational commitment to shift the power structure, but making the time, effort and having the vision is essential for this work. If we don’t engage in youth-adult partnerships we miss out on an important opportunity to realize the vision for adolescent sexual health that views youth as equal partners.