diversity – Youth Infusion

“Check out”what’s happening in Libraries

“We are hearing the important word “co-design” more as libraries are designing programs “with” teens, not “for” them. Instead of planning first and bringing the teens in later, teens are given a seat at the table from the beginning. Libraries are going into communities and building relationships with trusted messengers, and if the goal is to develop programming for teens, then teens need to be among those trusted messengers. This movement reflects a larger trend of a ‘with them’ practice.”

This paradigm shift is described by Shari Henry, previously Director of Democracy and Community Impact with the Urban Libraries Council and who now works with the largest library system in Virginia. In addition to maximizing the impact of youth services, co-piloting with teens plots future directions for libraries and diversifying the career pipeline.

Instead of libraries becoming obsolete institutions, some innovative practices of inclusion are gaining traction.

Another visionary in the library universe is Liz McChesney, National Summer Learning Association Senior Fellow. She reviewed Why Aren’t We Doing This! Collaborating with Minors in Major Ways which I co authored with Denise Webb, now 20. McChesney says

“This practical and easy to use guide gives actionable examples of how to include youth and co-design for authentic engagement. This is a must read for all those who want more inclusive and equitable programs and services in their libraries that are designed with youth instead of for them.”

Prof. Anthony Bernier at California’s San José State University School of Information continues to push and prod libraries to move beyond traditional youth development framework. I am proud to have contributed a chapter in his book, Transforming Young Adult Services. I’m even prouder to share his review of our book..

In an inspiringly accessible narrative voice, Why Aren’t We Doing This – teaches the topics and addresses the concerns skeptics simply accept to justify why incorporating young people is just too hard.

Webb and Lesko illustrate how it’s not.

Their well laid-out Table of Contents usher readers through six logical arguments and strategies for disrupting legacies that exclude youth through inducting and infusing youth into the operational and strategic fabric of our organizations. Along the way Why Aren’t We Doing This shares real-world insights from their interviews as well as offers practical resources, such as the “Ladder of Real Vs. Token Youth Participation,” to help guide organizations away from superficial manipulations of young people through to genuine influence and power enhancing collaborations.

That said, as someone who teaches youth service professionals, I particularly appreciate the detailed content about appropriate on-boarding, coaching, and co-piloting techniques leading to authentic youth influence building.

Libraries = Community Hub!

Join Our National Hub!!

Join with other youth practitioners from many different sector in our online exchange about individual and institutional change to co-create with this demographic that is essential to innovation in every community. “Check out” Youth Infusion HUB @ LinkedIN.

Photo: El Gabilan Library – Salinas, CA

Our Invite to “Collab”!

“Collab” is one of the most popular words of post-Millennials, according to the authors of Generation Z, Explained: The Art of Living in a Digital Age

While now it’s collab, I have two decades experience with its ancestor, collaborating, and with teens, or minors – those 17 years and 364 days and under. The rich experiences and major triumphs I attribute to these teen partnerships continually fuel my personal growth and commitment for radical youth infusion. When I reflect on these mutual mentoring experiences, I am reminded how much I still have to learn. The uniqueness of each experience, the singular nature of every youth-adult partnership, make for a varied and exciting pathway toward impactful interGEN interdependence.

My latest collaboration started in 2021 as a conversation and grew into a book, the Youth Infusion Hub and a deep collaboration with a remakable teen – Denise Webb.

She is one of two dozen teens who work in different capacities with adult-run organizations, and my research at the time sought to gain insights about the good, the bad and the ugly. A few emails and Zooms and Denise and I realized that our bigger philosophies met in a shared vision for our future where teens contribute meaningfully to organizations large and small. We had the opportunity to examine and apply the ins and outs of interGEN collaboration ourselves as we documented ways organizations are collaborating with minors in major ways, and how it can be done in any organization. This project that became Why Aren’t We Doing This! Collaborating with Minors in Major Ways showcases Denise’s insights and her remarkable ability to meet deadlines between classes and a long list of other commitments and responsibilities.

We hope the stories, quotes and strategies we present will spark every group of people to look around and recognize that without youths, something is missing — irreplaceable insights, intelligence, intuition and the ideas of young generations.

We provide reasons why, techniques how, and commitments to supporting youth infusion. Nineteen year-old Denise invites everyone to consider opening their mind and inviting teens to be key and critical partners:

“Let us build and revise systems that have torn you, me and the people before us down. Join us. Have us on your team.”

Our book is the starting point. To boost momentum, we created a Hub and provide resources for infosharing. Now more than ever, we need you, regardless of age or position.

We invite you to . . .

Tell us what topics from our book you want expanded on or suggest new angles of interGEN collab
Submit a guest blog to wendy@youthinfusion.org
Check out our cadre of interGEN collaborators
Sign up for our biweekly updates with tactical tips and that feature the innovations of others
Participate in the Youth Infusion Hub to grow and enrich our interGEN knowledgebase and support the community by sharing your lived experiences and expertise.

Together we can work as a team. When we exchange different approaches to youth infusion, individuals and institutions all benefit!

Youth on Governing Boards

The pinnacle of power often centers on a nonprofit’s Board of Directors. The data show that only 21.4 percent of these key governing roles are held by people of color–not much change from the BoardSource’s survey way back in 1994. A commitment to representation that reflects our increasingly younger and more diverse population is one of the transformative shifts needed to replace White Supremacy.

Anecdotal evidence reveals that young people who serve on boards contribute in significant ways such as strategic planning and also change the culture. The CEO of one environmental education nonprofit claims the high school students, who are treated as equals on the Board, often surpass the adults in their serious attention to the Board of Directors handbook, their careful analysis of budgets along with penetrating questions. Another executive director credits young people not only making Board meetings more fun but causing older members to follow through. If you’re interested, you can learn more about youth as board members from the Freechild Institute »

One student position on a local school board remains an anomaly. Even then, these high school reps have only an advisory role. It took 38 years to get legislation through the Maryland Statehouse to allow the Student Member of the Montgomery County Board of Education to be able to vote on the hiring of the Superintendent, capital and operating budgets, collective bargaining, school closings, COVID re-openings, and boundaries. Montgomery County is the 16th largest school district in the country. It seems totally out of whack that the primary stakeholders–those in the classroom–are outnumbered. Imagine if AARP had eight trustees under 25 and only one over age 50.

“Students are the most valuable and least consulted education policy experts in America.”
Amanda Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World

But most adults would not agree with Ripley as explained in typically colorful language by my colleague, Adam to Education Week last year:

“Some adults talk to me about the inmates running the asylum. It’s this fear, this concern that kids don’t know what’s best for themselves, and as adults we have the best experience and knowledge.”
Adam Fletcher, June 11, 2019

Minors and young adults serving as reps or directors signal an institutional shift that has the potential to accelerate the snail’s pace of achieving diversity on nonprofit boards.

P.S. To build a truly multi-racial intergenerational organization, youth also need to be involved not on a monthly or quarterly basis but interacting regularly with staff, otherwise known as Youth Infusion.

Do you agree with Adam about “the inmates”? We are eager to hear your reactions – please share them in the comments section!

Infuse ‘Y’ in DEI

It’s time to embed young people in these organizations to actually increase diversity, to actually practice inclusion and the most challenging, to actually share power to achieve equity.

The National Council of Nonprofits drives home the question: “Does your nonprofit create opportunities to listen to the voices directly from community, grassroots, or young leaders in low-income, under-served and/or marginalized populations within its community?” The answer often falls to a vice-president or team charged with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Apart from token engagement, youth-serving institutions do not practice what they preach given the exclusion of this entire age group.

It’s time to embed young people in these organizations to actually increase diversity, to actually practice inclusion and the most challenging, to actually share power to achieve equity. This is distinct from a youth advisory committee or an internship program. As we all know, it is an unfair burden and an impossible task to ask a few young people to represent their generation—the most diverse in history.

Expanding DEI

Diversity – representing many young people of color and multiple identities
Equity – redistributing power and engaging in real shared decision-making
Inclusion – respecting a broad range of perspectives by youth of many racial and socio-economic backgrounds

This process of infusing the ‘Y’ in DEI does not and should never happen overnight. Serious organizational commitment to create an intergenerational culture by senior staff and the board is a prerequisite. Just as those in charge of DEI trainings for the entire staff—especially to address systemic racism—workshops also need to pull back the curtain and interrupt individual and institutional biases about youth as well as confront adultist attitudes.

Youth don’t have the academic or professional credentials but by virtue of their station in life and firsthand knowledge about their peers, rarely are young people privy to the circle of strategizing and decision making. Equitable inclusion of diverse youth seems only just. In fact, ‘justice’ is being added to DEI which, as Richard Leong with Act to Change suggests, could translate into a more catchy acronym: JEDI.

What do you think about incorporating both the ‘J’ and ‘Y’ in DEI? Please reach out to us to learn more.

Graphic: League of Women Voters of Delaware