1. Youth Engagement: A Framework for Building Youth Resilience and Leadership
JoAnne Malloy
Heidi Cloutier
Kimm Phillips
Justin Tilbe
August 16, 2018
2/16/2019

2. Learning Objectives
Describe the Youth Engagement Project
Describe the importance and examples of engaging youth.
Review the draft: NH Youth Engagement Framework
Identify how you might engage youth in your schools or communities
2/16/2019

3. Youth Engagement - GAPS
Youth run and youth advocacy groups are not collaborating;
Gap 41: There is an absence of practice support for this approach from the primary public education and service systems
Gap 43: Public systems are not in any organized way taking advantage of the natural skills among young people and systemically involving them in public education and communication activities
Gap 44: Each of these [leadership development] activities appears to stand alone, without much visible evidence that they represent significant planning and implementation collaboration by multiple systems and agencies.
Davis, Gap Analysis Paper, 2016
JoAnne
2/16/2019

4. Continuum of Family/Youth Engagement
Individual level
Own School/Agency
Community Systems
Region and State
Activities
Building Self-Efficacy
Opportunities to Participate
Peer-to-Peer Supporters
Advocacy Skill Development
Individualized Peer-to-Peer Support
Educational Opportunities
Leadership Development
Individualized Child- and Family Teams
Leadership Development- Community groups
Self-Advocacy
 Self-Advocacy
Group Advocacy
 Group Advocacy
Dual Capacity Development
Dual Capacity Building
To define and conceptualization where we want to go….JoAnne

5. Youth Engagement Project Background
Youth participation and involvement in program design, implementation, and evaluation.
Positive environments and safe and structured places.
Skill and asset development opportunities.
Opportunities to serve others.
Positive relationships with adults.
RESILIENCY
POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Davis, Gap Analysis, 2016, p. 30
JoAnne
2/16/2019

6. Goal of Youth Engagement Project (YEP)
Develop products and articulate processes for family and youth engagement in schools, state systems, and community entities, that are delivered by family and youth-led purveyor organizations (capacity builders) and that will lead to improved outcomes for children, youth, young adults and families.
Work together to develop materials and communicate the “how-to” to schools, systems, and local agencies and that will lead to engagement development programs that create improved outcomes for children, youth, young adults and families.
Kimm
To respond to those gaps that Cliff identified/JoAnne mentioned he also had a short list of recommendations
This included the need for advocacy and support organizations to work together and collaboratively develop an engagement development program/structure that can be offered to local schools to assist them in developing staff competencies and parent/family capabilities to engage together effectively on behalf of the students they share.
This structure could be offered more uniformly to any/all schools, thus creating a shared language and approach across NH communities.
With that the IOD convened a group- YEP- to develop youth engagement practice expectations as determined by youth and those who work with youth to develop leadership opportunities.
We- as a group- YEP- identified the need for the youth engagement expectations or ‘best-practices’ to be clearly embedded in system/program/position descriptions and performance evaluations (including evaluations of systems).

7. Youth Engagement Project Team
YOU of Granite State Organizing project
YouthMOVE NH
Youth Leadership Through Adventure
Community Action for Safe Teens
Teen Institute
YEAH Council
American Civil Liberties Union
New Futures
Institute on Disability at UNH
Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative
Kimm
So who was involved in YEP? Multiple groups and organizations throughout the state met, provided input and assisted in developing the framework that JoAnne is going to introduce to you.
(add a bit more info on who the groups were/where they were located/what their focus is)
2/16/2019

8. NH- YEP Mission
We work together to help other organizations and groups understand what works and what doesn’t work when working with youth, the value of helping to create opportunities for positive youth development and engaging youth to take on leadership roles.
Kimm

9. Youth Engagement Project (YEP)
Initial meeting Summer 2017
Last full meeting Summer 2018
Barriers-
Time
Transportation
Engagement
Kimm
2/16/2019

10. YEP Accomplishments Created an opportunity for groups to share
Created a draft practice profile
Collected information from member organizations
Collaborated to share information outside of the group
Kimm
Created opportunities for groups to share/cross promote awareness of the group and activities
Created a draft practice profile that outlines the values and key features of how organizations that promote youth development, engagement, and leadership
Collected information from member organizations for an online resource map
Networked, shared information, collaborated, began to work together
2/16/2019

11. Next Steps September 19, 2018 Discuss creating the statewide map
A website for promoting youth leadership activities
Discuss potential funding sources/ability to continue meeting as a group/out reaching to other youth organizations
Kimm
2/16/2019

12. Resource Map: Youth Engagement in NH (that we know of)
Youth Leadership
Through Adventure
Resource Map: Youth Engagement in NH (that we know of)
PEMI Youth Center
YouthMOVE- NH
Institute
on Disability
New
Futures
YEAH Council
Dover Youth2Youth
Community
Action
for Safe
Teens
Teen Institute
Young Organizers
United
2/16/2019

13. Student Voice to Improve School Culture
Increasing student voice in schools helps create a shift towards a more positive school climate (Mitra, 2003)
Schools with a positive school culture are more effective (Engles et al, 2008)
Finding ways to seek student input and involve students provides opportunities for student leadership
When the voice of students is heard it makes the message more FUN !!!!!

15. Why Engage Youth? 1. Engagement relates to healthier behaviors…
S t a u n t o n & J a f f e e, 2014

16. 2. Engagement builds positive youth development, and reduces problem behaviors. (Guerra & Bradshaw, 2008)
positive sense of self,
Self control,
decision-making skills,
a moral system of belief, and,
prosocial connectedness

17. 3. Engagement builds youth resiliency skills
Positive Influences can tip the scale:
facilitating supportive adult-child relationships;
building a sense of self-efficacy and perceived control;
providing opportunities to strengthen adaptive skills and self-regulatory capacities; and,
mobilizing sources of faith, hope, and cultural traditions.
Center for the Developing Child,
Harvard University

18. 4. Engaging students results in change….

20. Continuum of Youth Leadership
While it is often claimed that students are being engaged, not all engagement is authentic. Engagement loses authenticity when adults are conflicted about questions of power and control. Well-intentioned attempts to create decision making positions for youth (placing them on boards of directors or charging them with leadership of community projects) have often failed because youth and adults were not adequately prepared to work together in a new arrangement. Authentic Youth Engagement has been an evolving area of study over the past two decades. How many of you are familiar with the ladder of youth participation? Roger Hart popularized the Ladder of Youth Participation in 1992.Hart’s ladder has Manipulation, Decoration and Tokenism representing youth having no power, and moving toward consultative roles and eventually youth- adult partnerships as you progress up the ladder 
As we move up the continuum we’ll see adults involve youth, but retain control over the majority of decisions, letting young people make decisions controlled by the adults. Authentic youth engagement strives for Youth/ Adult Partnerships or Youth leadership ,with youth leading the change efforts. Authentic Youth engagement is grounded in values of mutual respect, trust, communication, meaningful involvement, and intergenerational equity. Adults respect young people as having something significant to offer, supporting and encouraging their full involvement and valuing the diverse perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and cultural differences youth bring Youth Engagement and leadership is critical in shaping the climate of a school.
We use the terms youth voice, engagement and leadership to identify roles across the continuum :
We are striving for Youth/ Adult Partnerships where youth become leaders of change :Mutual respect, trust communication, meaningful involvement, and intergenerational equity
Adults respect young people as having something significant to offer, supporting and encouraging their full involvement.
Youth Expression: students express their ideas, opinions, attitudes, or share knowledge and may answer questions adult leaders pose. In the classroom environment studnts may create learner profiles about how they learn best.
Consultation : students take surveys and provide input and feedback on schoolwide initiatives. In the classroom students may share personal learning profiles with her teachers and create a personal learning plan linked to their learning styles and preferences.
Participation: students attend activities with a role in decision-making, and in the classroom articulate action steps to meet learning goals.
Partnership : students and adults collaborate, share decision-making and take ownership of outcomes.
Activism: students identify problems and generate solutions and advocate for change in and outside of school.
Leadership : student led change, students lead the group, plan & make decisions and takes responsibility for the outcomes. 

21. Levels of Student Engagement within a MTSS-B
Data
Activities
Students and family
Members use their benchmarking
data to choose and adjust practices
Students are active participants
In the development of their
Individualized plans and teams.
Students are active partners in
the implementation of
Small group interventions.
Students use small group
Data to improve outcomes
And adjust practices
Students assess
Schoolwide,
community wide
data and create action plans to collaborate with the adults
Students participate
In the development,
teaching, reinforcement,
of the schoolwide
social expectations,
skill-building and norms

22. In Nute High School…
Created student friendly language for behavior expectations and definitions
Gave feedback on which behaviors should be handled in the classroom and which behaviors should be handled by the office
Trained faculty on how to handle office referrals
Instilled in faculty to develop positive connections with students
Surveyed peers
Designed lesson plans & videos on behavior expectations that had real value
Gave input on what students would buy into for an acknowledgement system
Create both student and staff buy-in
Reduce office referrals by 50% in 1 year!

23. At Somersworth High School…
Developed of Chain Reaction Club, consisting of a diverse group of students
Surveyed peers on perception of disengagement from school, analyzed data and presented it to faculty
Gave input into school rules
Gave input into acknowledgement system
Gave important insight of what was really happening when staff were not around
Organized Rachel’s Challenge
Develop Acts of Kindness
Sponsored Dialogue Day on Bullying
Members on Universal Team
Challenged teachers to greet students and build positive connections
Sponsored Diversity Week
Created videos as teaching tools
Video: 6:19 – 8:30

24. Framework
Read through the # your group has been assigned ie #1 Strengths based
Discuss whether the levels of implementation make sense, is there anything missing or needs to be changed?
What Tools / Resources would you need to implement at each stage?
Report out
Have 1 person take notes and hand this in before the end of the session.
Kimm
2/16/2019

25. Thank you!
2/16/2019