Creating & Sustaining a Youth Advocacy Board

Youth engagement is a key strategy for preventing gender-based violence. Young people have always been on the front lines of our social justice movements, pushing us to be bolder and more innovative. We need young people to move this work forward. True intergenerational partnership that values what each person brings to the table is a beautiful thing.

It is particularly important to include young people’s voices when planning any youth-serving programs. As the saying coined by disability rights activists goes, “nothing about us without us.” Any attempts to work with or on behalf of young people (or any other marginalized group) that do not center their voices and experiences will fall flat. Or worse—they will replicate the anti-Blackness, ageism, and other forms of oppression that advocates and activists seek to dismantle. 

Click here to read more about Youth Advocacy Boards (YAB)—particularly about a YAB strategy that amplifies Black youth in your programming. Topics & tips include

Forming Your YAB:

1. Identify desired results. What do you want the youth advisory board to accomplish and/or learn? Remember, youth should be empowered to work on projects that feel meaningful to them. Perhaps your board will be interested in a dating violence prevention campaign on social media. Maybe they will want to focus on ending the school to prison pipeline for Black girls. Keep an open mind and follow their lead!
2. Determine acceptable evidence. How will you know that the YAB is accomplishing its goals? Will it work to complete a specific project? Will youth complete exit surveys at the end of their time on the board to assess whether they viewed their work as worthwhile? Consider what will make sense for your circumstances.
3. Engage in student activities. This is the time to do the work that your YAB set out to accomplish. For best outcomes, NYLC encourages organizations to follow the eight service-learning standards for quality practice: meaningful service, link to curriculum (if working within an education setting), reflection, diversity, youth voice, partnerships, progress monitoring, and duration and intensity.
4. Self-assessment. What worked well during this process? What didn’t? Be sure to note lessons learned and to look for ways to deepen your support of youth leaders.

Considerations for Sustaining the Work of the YAB:

• • Center those most marginalized. 
  • Move back and let youth lead. 
  • Build authentic relationships with your YAB members. 
  • Engage in self-reflection in order to be a good adult ally. 
  • Invest in YAB members’ well-being. Compensate them!