Youth Engagement in Improving Services

To further the exploration of the changing role of community development organizations (CDOs) in youth development work, the Ford Foundation retained Community Development Associates, Inc., (CDA) in January of 1998 to conduct an investigation of the interconnection between youth development work and that of community-based organizations.

By Karen Pittman, September 2004

The truth hurts sometimes, but it shouldn’t hurt the truth tellers. At least that’s what we’ve been led to believe. Not so for the Tiffany Schley, the valedictorian of a Brooklyn high school who was denied her diploma after using her air time at graduation to tell school officials and parents that she and her peers were graduating in spite of, not because of, the school system.

On the weekend of September 22 -23, 2006, two dozen youth (aged 15 – 20) and adults from Oasis/Community Impact! in Nashville, Tennessee; Youth in Action and Young Voices in Providence, Rhode Island; and Austin Voices for Education and Youth in Austin, Tex

An annotated resource guide about Youth Action for Educational Change.

In order to authentically engage young people in the high school reform process youth need clear opportunities to share responsibility for their own learning and for school and community reform processes, and to connect how and what they learn in school with what they do at home and in the community.