Civic Engagement and Activism in Afterschool Programs: The Benefits of Youth Participation

Source: www.playcaptains.com

By Sam Piha

We are continuing to post a series of blogs to inform and encourage expanded learning programs to start today infusing civic engagement and activism in their afterschool program. NOTE: There are many program resources on the topic, some of which are detailed in our paper, Youth Civic Engagement and Activism in Expanded Learning Programs. You can view blogs from this series here. We also conducted a webinar on this topic which can be viewed here.

In this blog we discuss the benefits of youth participation in civic engagement and activism activities. 

Research and experience tell us that involving young people in civic engagement and activism activities brings benefits to youth participants. Some of these are detailed below. Benefits are also accrued by the organizational partners and the larger community, as well as adult program staff. 

Now I’m very confident in myself. I know that I can make changes. Sometimes I used to think that our lives were kind of pointless. And now, it’s like, you can make real changes. Now it’s the school and maybe in my career and my adult life, I could actually do something with a lot of determination and will.”  – Rosalinda, 12th grader 

Benefits of Civic Engagement and Activism for Youth Participants

• Helps them make new friends and contacts and increases their social and relationship skills
• Helps them build social capital
• Increases self-confidence and promotes a positive sense of agency and empowerment
• Combats depression and helps them stay physically healthy
• Supports healing from trauma
• Provides a sanctuary
• Opportunities to serve others and give back to the community
• Prepares them for leadership roles
• Opens their minds to new ideas and people
• Fuels passion and purpose
• Teaches collaboration
• Brings fun and fulfillment to their lives
• The happiness effect: Helping others kindles happiness, as many studies have demonstrated
• Learn valuable job skills and can offer career experience
• Increases connection to the community
• More likely to remain civically engaged as adults

Contributing provides adolescents the experiences they need to complete the key tasks of this life stage: building autonomy, identity, and intimacy. Making meaningful contributions to others allows adolescents to see that they can have a positive effect on the world, giving them the confidence necessary to build autonomy and agency. When their contributions are recognized, young people come to understand their place and value in the world, developing their sense of identity. Having the opportunity to provide meaningful social support to friends and family builds the intimacy they’ll need to form positive, long-lasting relationships in adulthood.” - Meghan Lynch Forder, What Teens Gain When They Contribute to Their Social Groups

Source: Greater Good Science Center

In economically distressed communities who are the targets of structural racism, we have seen how youth benefit from the opportunity to reflect critically on the world — to ask questions and denaturalize what feels like “normal” by visiting neighboring communities and imagine radical futures and the opportunity to generate solutions through policies or public narratives. These experiences contribute to a sense of agency and belonging that prepares young people to navigate the world with confidence and critical analysis; in some cases it can also offer a context for “healing” that involves personal and social transformation.” – Dr. Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado, Boulder (from an interview published in Youth Civic Engagement and Activism in Expanded Learning Programs).

WHAT PROGRAM LEADERS SAY ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF YOUTH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT:

“They gain job experience, something to put on their resume, and they learn how to and create a resume. They report feeling that they can make a difference in the lives of children in their own neighborhood as well as in other neighborhoods other than their own. They broaden/deepen their social capital. They benefit from caring relationships with adults and other teens.” - Rebecca Fabiano, Fab Youth Philly

“Students build social capital, a valuable skillset they can apply in virtually any career and in civic life, a highly-attractive college, career, and civic portfolio, opportunities to collaborate vs. compete with their peers and opportunities to effect the change they want to see in the world.” - Rachel Belin, Kentucky Student Voice Team

“Youth empowerment and a sense of engagement at all levels. Youth gain a sense of self in the larger world and political environment. They gain a sense of being a part of the system with the ability to affect vs being passive members of a community where things happen to them.” - Brad Lupien, Arc Experience

“Youth have an understanding of the country’s democratic process and understand how to navigate the barriers to participation. Youth are able to form their own opinions and political ideology. Leadership skills like public speaking and collaboration are key to success in the program. Lastly, it is essential for youth to walk away with the experience of creating community with youth of different backgrounds and identity.” - Jenifer Hughes, YMCA of San Francisco

“The concrete skills youth develop through the project-based approach we use have different types of real- world applications. They learn to conduct hands-on research like site visits, interviews, and surveys. They learn to think critically about why disparities persist and are challenged to do innovative problem solving. They become more comfortable with public speaking and with speaking to legislators and other stakeholders. Many students do go on to major in political science, join civic-oriented clubs on campus, pursue careers in politics, etc. But I’ve seen that even students who go on to do things in other fields report that what they learned here has prepared them for the “real world” in more ways than one.” - Laura Jankstrom, YOUTHACTION NYC

“4-H empowers youth to practice and recognize the importance of civic and social responsibility by strengthening their leadership and citizenship skills. It prepares them for life, inspiring them to be invested, informed and accountable for generating the change they want to see in the world—and to create their own success in the future. 4-H participants are four times more likely to actively contribute to their communities and two times more likely to get better grades in school.” - Rebecca Kelley, J.D., 4-H 

Civic Engagement and Activism in Afterschool Programs: An Interview with a Youth Development Researcher

Source: NHP Foundation

By Sam Piha

According to the Afterschool Alliance, “The afterschool field is an essential partner in ensuring that all children have the ability to participate in immersive, relevant, and hands-on civic engagement opportunities.” Not only are civic engagement strategies participatory strategies, they contribute to the positive development of youth and the health of our democracy.

Now I’m very confident in myself. I know that I can make changes. Sometimes I used to think that our lives were kind of pointless. And now, it’s like, you can make real changes. Now it’s the school and maybe in my career and my adult life, I could actually do something with a lot of determination and will.”  – Rosalinda, 12th grader 

We are continuing to post a series of blogs to inform and encourage expanded learning programs to start today infusing civic engagement and activism in their afterschool program. NOTE: There are many program resources on the topic, some of which are detailed in our paper, Youth Civic Engagement and Activism in Expanded Learning Programs. You can view previous blogs from this series here. You can also view a recent recording of our webinar we held on this topic here.

In this blog we interview a youth development researcher. Dr. Ben Kirshner is a Professor in the School of Education at University of Colorado, Boulder.  Ben's research examines youth organizing, critical participatory action research, and new forms of digital media as contexts for learning, development, and social change.

Dr. Ben Kirshner

Q: You have studied why youth activism and civic engagement are important avenues for youth development. Can you share some of your findings?

A: In my initial research I wanted to challenge dominant frameworks for youth civic engagement and community service, which were based on middle class and affluent assumptions about “service”, and were not capturing the kinds of community resilience and youth activism happening in communities of color. 

My research carried out with multiracial youth organizing groups in the Bay Area showed how youth participants developed a capacity for critique and collective agency to challenge unjust systems and negative stereotypes. These developmental achievements, it turned out, also spoke to unique elements of learning environments in youth organizing groups. Through peer to peer mentoring, apprenticeship learning, and commitments to young people’s dignity, these settings offer great promise for learning environments in and out of school.

Since then I’ve developed more strategic research collaborations with youth organizations and schools, in which we use research to understand and address compelling challenges jointly identified with youth or organization leaders. For example, I was part of a participatory action research team to study the impact of a high school closure on students, which showed students’ creative and resilient adaptations but also the stressors that displacement added to their lives. More recent work extended core findings about youth organizing groups as developmental settings and tested out their relevance for classroom learning in collaborative work with high school educators.

Q: How should we prepare staff to lead civic engagement and youth activism activities? 

A: Staff support for civic engagement and youth activism will look different across different kinds of organizations. Some, for example, are multigenerational political organizations where adults work alongside youth in apprenticeship-type relationships. In these settings, adults should be prepared for a cycle of modeling, coaching, and fading: this involves sharing strategies with youth while also listening and learning from young people as partners in social change. In organizations that are more apolitical or refrain from explicit political activisms, staff should be prepared to facilitate youth decision-making and planning; moreover, staff should not be afraid of situations where youth may “fail” in their campaigns - there is lots to learn from setbacks.

Q: What is the best age for these activities?

A: There is no best age. Elementary age children can participate in various forms of community-building and activism just as older youth can. Of course, as skilled youth workers will know, young people’s maturity levels may shape the kinds of roles played by staff and how they support youth voice and engagement.

Source: Play Captains Initiative

Q: Why do programs offer these activities and why do kids join?

A: Organizations that invite young people to participate in social change do so because they know that youth are key agents of making the world better; young people are agents of change throughout the world! Many organizing groups are motivated more by their desire to build power for social change than by the goal of offering a learning experience for youth. But, consistent with what we know about learning and development, young people end up learning a great deal by participating in social change movements. In other words, sometimes the best learning experiences are those that are not designed with learning as the primary aim. 

Q: What benefits do kids accrue?

A: Benefits really depend on the type of program you are talking about and who is participating. I have done research about youth organizing groups that engage young people of color growing up in economically distressed communities who are the targets of structural racism. In these settings, we have seen how youth benefit from the opportunity to a) reflect critically on the world — to ask questions and denaturalize what feels like “normal” by visiting neighboring communities and imagine radical futures and b) the opportunity to generate solutions through policies or public narratives. These experiences contribute to a sense of agency and belonging that prepares young people to navigate the world with confidence and critical analysis; in some cases it can also offer a context for “healing” that involves personal and social transformation.

Q: Please describe any challenges programs should be aware of.

A: I would say the biggest challenge has to do with preparing adults to share power and become skilled at the delicate dance of guidance of and deference to youth leaders - to act in solidarity with young people.

Q: Can you offer any tips to others?

A: For staff and leaders of programs, I think the first place to start is to get clear on what you are comfortable doing and getting behind; if you are inviting young people to participate in an activity, be prepared to act in solidarity with them as they pursue it. Be transparent about the premise of your activities with youth and what they are signing up for.

Dr. Ben Kirshner moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his twenties, where he was a youth worker. These experiences motivated him to study educational equity and the design of learning environments, which he pursued at Stanford's Graduate School of Education. Ben is now a Professor in the School of Education at CU-Boulder and serves as Faculty Director for CU Engage: Center for Community-Based Learning and Research. In his work with CU Engage Ben supports programs and people who develop and sustain university-community research partnerships that address persistent public challenges guided by values of social justice and grassroots democracy. 

Ben's research examines youth organizing, critical participatory action research, and new forms of digital media as contexts for learning, development, and social change. His 2015 book, Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality, received the social policy award for best authored book from the Society of Research on Adolescence. Ben is Editor for the Information Age Press Series on Adolescence and Education. His new projects involve collaborations with youth organizing groups that use research to build organizational capacity and campaign strategy, and partnerships with school districts that promote transformative student voice.

We are hosting a webinar/ Speaker’s Forum on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 from 10:00am- 12:00pm (PST) entitled, Afterschool as a Teacher Pathway. The purpose of this webinar is to inform and encourage OST leaders on how best to develop/join and promote an afterschool to teacher pathway. It is our intention to capture and share valuable and intriguing ideas from educational and OST leaders. To learn more and register, click the banner below.

We have also released a new briefing paper on this topic, which can be viewed and downloaded here.

Throughout the month of November, we'll be promoting The How Kids Learn Foundation Giving Tuesday fundraiser. During the pandemic, HKLF made sure that youth workers could continue their professional development. They did this by quickly pivoting from face-to-face events to virtual/ online webinars. Help them continue to deliver quality professional development to your afterschool leaders in 2022. To learn more and donate, click here.