YSB

Quality of Life Result: All children and youth in Connecticut will become resilient, empowered, productive and engaged citizens.

http://www.ctyouthservices.org/Customer-Content/WWW/CMS/files/YSB-RBA-Report-card.pdf 

Youth

http://sparkaction.org/content/engaging-youth-community-change-nashville 

Nashville’s Keys to Success:

Principles for Engaging Young People in Community Change

1. Design an Outreach Strategy – Nashville leadership sought diverse input, and found young people who had access to adult support via a community organization or another mechanism.
2. Create a Home Base – Choose convenient and consistent meeting locations so that young people develop a sense of familiarity with their surroundings. Meet in youth-friendly places to help young people feel safe.
3. Convey an Intentional Philosophy of Change – It is important for leadership to state the importance of meaningful youth involvement openly and frequently. The mayor and his staff made it clear from the beginning that young people needed to play a critical role in the process.
4. Identify Issues – The Mayor’s Youth Council identified issues that were important to young people. This created authenticity and coherence for the plan, and insured that it targeted changes that young people want and need, not just what adults think they need.
5. Create Youth and Adult Teams – Having two members on each of the planning committees was important. Moving out of the planning phase, leaders are creating pathways for the Mayor’s Youth Council to partner with adults who are involved in implementation.  
6. Build Youth and Adult Capacity – This is difficult in such a short and intense planning process, but is an important longer term goal in order to build community capacity across generations.
7. Provide Individual Support – On task force committees where adults had experience supporting young people, the young people felt more supported and therefore stayed more involved.  
8. Create Opportunities for Sustained Access and Influence – Nashville did not stop at engaging youth in planning; it created mechanisms for youth to participate in implementation as well.

Core principles referenced from Core Principles for Engaging Young People in Community Change, Forum for Youth Investment 2007.

Download the case study here.