This fall, Remake Learning is exploring the definition and evolution of youth voice. First, we laid out the basics. Then, we heard from Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Asia Mason, who shared her three tips for creating engaging youth leadership opportunities. Now, we’ve collected 12 reports, tools, and in-person opportunities to help you more deeply empower the students in your own learning community.

Something missing from this rundown? Email info@remakelearning.org to let us know!

RESEARCH & REPORTS

Youth Organizing: A Model for Change

This practical report presents the building blocks of a structured youth voice model, including three key practices: developing a membership base, building a leadership pool, and honing a multi-level strategy.

Transforming Young People and Communities: New Findings on the Impacts of Youth Organizing

The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing finds that involvement in youth organizing contributes to the social-emotional and academic development of young people in powerful ways, while also promoting civic and community engagement.

The Power of Transformative Youth Leadership: A Field Analysis of Youth Organizing in Pittsburgh

Released in 2012, this local report positions youth organizing as a powerful and necessary tool for education reform and looks at its impact on three existential levels: individual, community, and social.

Reasons youth engage in activism programs: Social justice or sanctuary?

Youth voice assumes that young people have an inherent desire to take action in social justice and other organizing efforts. But why, and what motivates them to engage?

TOOLS

Framework for Facilitating the Emergence of Learner Agency

How do we build a context where learners feel empowered to make intentional choices and take an active role in their own learning? GripTape defines and tests four key components of learner agency – environment, experience, skills, and internal locus – and positions agency as key to a self-reinforcing cycle of learning and development.

An Emerging Model for Working with Youth

Go back to basics and break down youth organizing into its constituent parts: community organizing and youth development.

StudentVoice.org

Student Voice is a national organization that provides students with a platform to change their schools and communities through a network of local chapters.

Youth Participatory Evaluation 

Youth participatory evaluation (YPE) engages young people in evaluating the programs, organizations, and systems designed to serve them. Get the background and an implementation rundown on the YPE process from ACT for Youth.

Youth in Front

Through a series of videos, experienced youth activists and allies offer advice on leading change.

The Neutral Zone’s Youth Driven Space Tools 

Find indexes, self-assessments, rubrics, and more in this collection of tools for designing and implementing youth-driven programs.

EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES

Steeltown Open House

See youth development and youth-produced media in action on October 3. Steeltown’s Teen Film Crew gets paid to build their skills, create promotional videos for clients, and work on their own creative content.

Mentors in the Making 

Fab Lab Carnegie Science Center’s award-winning mentorship program pairs students with STEM professionals to co-learn digital fabrication skills and complete a community-driven capstone project of the student’s design. Apply to be a mentor by October 15.

FOR MORE

Remake Learning’s Youth Voice Working Group convenes and coordinates the efforts of various people, programs, and organizations working on youth voice efforts across the region. See what they’ve been up to lately.