This section helps us to think about the aspects of working with young people that will shape your youth program. The goal is to stretch, reorient, and grow how you might consider the following ideas: 

1. What does youth mean? Who does it include?

2. What is safety? What creates a safe(r) environment for young people?

3. How will you practice recruitment, consent, and program evaluation?

We invite you to try on new words. These ideas are meant to strengthen relationships and develop more robust youth programs.

Before imagining how you will build a youth program, it’s important to think through your understanding of what “youth” means and who it includes. Youth is a term that has different interpretations. Mainstream conversations often use “youth” to refer to a developmental stage that is prior to adulthood, with varying ages to bracket this period of time (Furlong, 2012). However, considering “youth” as a stage before adulthood implies that young people are underdeveloped, which undermines their self-determination and decision-making abilities. 

Instead, we think of “youth” as a structural location that is based on social position and histories. Youth is constructed differently across time, place, race, gender, class, and sexual categories. Many youth programs rely on a developmental approach, framing their projects as “developing” or “empowering” young people. We suggest building youth programs that are not seeking ways to develop young people, but rather to work with young peoples’ social locations, expertise, and desires for the future (Tuck and Yang, 2013).