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Youth-adult partnerships in child and youth services engage the participants in collaborative, shared decision making, in areas such as governance, program planning and implementation, and advocacy. However, these partnerships often occur in isolation, and fail to engage in potentially useful, larger conversations about theory and research. Therefo...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... (1997;Treseder & Crowley, 2001) Degrees of Participation model (Figure 2) re- constructed Hart's five levels of participation, shifting them out of a ladder, and into a non- hierarchical frame. Treseder and Crowley (2001) stated that a circular model moved away from the assumption that there is an ideal level of youth participation, as represented by Hart's (1992) highest rung. ...
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The thesis to receive the master's degree in Government and Public Affairs is entitled "The School Drop-out of Youth in Patrimonial Poverty: Higher Education Scholarship Program (EMS) and Factors of drop-out". This document aimed to research the factors associated with dropping out of school for young people in EMS considering the variables identif...
Citations
... How are social justice issues addressed? In answering these questions, we adopt the 'youth-adult partnership' approach, which advocates for young people to be valued as partners in decision-making processes (Ramey, Lawford, and Vachon 2017). The article starts with an introductory section on the theoretical and analytical framework underlying the study. ...
... One of the complexities detected when researching the youth-adult partnership approach lies in the lack of agreed definitions and frameworks within the current research literature (Ramey, Lawford, and Vachon 2017). Akiva and Petrokubi (2016) add that one of the reasons for this may be the challenge of labelling in a simple manner a complex phenomenon that applies in multiple settings and has diverse goals. ...
The aim of this article is to analyse the educational strategies used by educators in out-of-school educational programmes for young people between 12 and18 years old. Taking an ethnographic approach, data collection was carried out through participant observation at seven programme sites where the participants assumed different levels of responsibility. The ?youth-adult partnership?, which involves people of different ages working together to spark changes in their environment, was used as an analytical framework. The main results showed the use of similar strategies across the different sites, notably including the establishment of relationships of trust and support, giving participants a voice in decision-making processes, and developing critical thinking. However, the type of task, the time spent on it and consistency in relationships seemed to be key factors in choosing specific strategies that encouraged involvement and decision-making.
... As one of the "Big Three" components of effective OST programming, youth-adult relationships can take on various forms, such as mentorship ; see also Ramey et al., 2017). Conceptually, Rhodes' (2002) Model of Youth Mentoring suggests that upregulated socioemotional, cognitive, and identity development may explain the association between popular OST-based youth-adult relationships and positive youth outcomes. ...
Introduction:
Supportive adults are a critical component of effective out-of-school time (OST) youth programs, yet the short-term dynamics that underlie their role are poorly understood. Within GripTape, a US-wide self-driven learning program, we examined if interactions with program-assigned adults (i.e., Champions) correspond with youths' daily psychosocial functioning (i.e., sense of purpose, self-concept clarity, and self-esteem).
Method:
Participants were 204 North American adolescents (M [SD] = 16.42 [1.18] years; female = 70.1%, male = 25.0%) enrolled in GripTape, a remote OST program that empowers under-resourced teens to pursue their passions for ~10 weeks. During enrollment, youth are given autonomy to structure their learning goals and methods to best match their needs; a stipend of up to 500 USD; and an adult Champion to act as a touchpoint. Data collection consisted of a baseline survey before the program launch and a 5-min survey on each day of enrollment.
Results:
Across ~70 days, we found that youth reported greater psychosocial functioning on days they reported interacting with their Champion. After controlling for same-day psychosocial functioning, we failed to find evidence that Champion interactions predicted youths' next-day psychosocial functioning.
Conclusion:
In addition to being among the first studies to investigate the daily benefits of youth-adult interactions within OST programming, this study documents the short-term incremental change that may underlie previous work on OST program outcomes.
... They, along with others, argue for youth-adult partnerships (Bounds et al., 2020;Godoy et al., 2020;Sahl & Knoepke, 2018). In youth-adult partnerships youth engage in higher levels of participation as collaborators in decision-making and governance (Ramey et al., 2017). Adults can help youth develop desired identities through this self-reflection and acknowledgment of their unique experiences. ...
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a challenging time marked by rapid changes in relational connections, housing status, and academic or work trajectories. We emphasize how structural inequality shapes racially minoritized youth behaviors and center the potential for resistance, arguing that a resistance lens allows us to deepen our understanding of the transition to adulthood for racially minoritized youth. Throughout the paper, we include research on how racially minoritized youth experience marginalizing institutional structures concurrently across multiple systems and their resulting behaviors. We end with the clinical and research implications of a resistance framework to illuminate resistance‐informed responses such as rethinking risk and creating spaces for youth‐led self‐making, youth–adult partnerships to scaffold transitions, and cultivating youth activism.
... The last two rungs indicate full participation with young people initiating ideas and leading decision-making and implementation processes. However, Ramey et al. (2017) contest that lower rungs of Hart's ladder are not intrinsically worse than the higher levels, especially in circumstances where young people may need adults' support and guidance to fully participate in leadership. Therefore, this paper advocates for partnerships that constitute youth-led ideas and shared decision-making with humanitarian actors to provide opportunities for learning from each other. ...
Despite being critical responders in humanitarian crises, local youths are continually left out of the humanitarian action agenda. This paper used a qualitative methodology to investigate local youths’ role in humanitarian response and their impacts and assessed how humanitarian actors influence the effectiveness of youth engagement. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with local youths who participated in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone. Findings showed that young people are significantly contributing to crises response. However, they lack an enabling environment and support system to convert their skills into valuable humanitarian resources efficiently. Therefore, despite the rhetoric that many reports and policies reflect, this study establishes that the realities of youth engagement in humanitarian activities are often misunderstood and controlled for the self-interest of different actors other than youths themselves. It advocates for a renewed focus and support for young people’s skills as paramount for effective humanitarian response and building back resilient communities after emergencies. Besides, engaging local youths in tackling crises empowers them with transferable skills and stimulates their passion for participating in development issues within their communities.
... The legislation requires that the Agency ensures that the views of the individual child are given due weight in decisions regarding hihe/sher care, having regard to the age and maturity of the child. Tusla is also required to seek the views of young service users as a collective in relation to service planning and review (Tusla Corporate Plan, 2015-2017. Tusla understands the term "participation" as the involvement of CYP in decision-making on issues that affect their lives. Decisions made by Tusla may relate to issues of a personal nature, concerning the welfare, protection or care of a child (individual participation), or of a public nature, affecting children collectively (collective participation). ...
... Because of the barriers that may present in certain organisational and professional contexts, the organisational culture and beliefs or philosophy around participation are important to consider, as these influence the likelihood that participation will be experienced as meaningful (Ramey, 2017). The way an organisation frames participation in policy can help professionals have a shared understanding of the principles of practice, and what it entails, from the management to practitioner level, and this can be reinforced by a support system for professionals underpinned by established processes and experiences (Ramey, 2017). ...
... Because of the barriers that may present in certain organisational and professional contexts, the organisational culture and beliefs or philosophy around participation are important to consider, as these influence the likelihood that participation will be experienced as meaningful (Ramey, 2017). The way an organisation frames participation in policy can help professionals have a shared understanding of the principles of practice, and what it entails, from the management to practitioner level, and this can be reinforced by a support system for professionals underpinned by established processes and experiences (Ramey, 2017). ...
Purpose
Participation is the active involvement of children and young people in decision-making regarding issues that affect their lives. It is crucial in the context of child protection and welfare systems and how they respond to the needs of children and young people. The purpose of this paper is to report on the evaluation of child and family participation in an early intervention and prevention programme implemented by the Irish Child and Family Agency. It provides an analysis of a comprehensive, “whole organization” approach to understand how participation is embedded in policy and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on a comparative qualitative case study of the perspectives of managers and practitioners about participation practice, identifying the facilitators and barriers, as well as their perspectives of the sustainability of participation within the agency and its partners. The authors draw on two complementary, theoretically informed studies evaluating participatory practice within the Agency using qualitative interviews with participants.
Findings
Overall, managers and practitioners had a positive attitude towards participation and identified examples of best practices. Facilitators included training, access to resources and the quality of relationships. Challenges for meaningful participation remain, such as the need to engage, hard to reach populations. Differences were identified regarding how embedded and sustainable participation was.
Originality/value
This paper provides a critical understanding of participation in practice and how to embed a culture of participation in child protection and welfare.
... Adults are critical allies in the successful inclusion of youth as fully actualized agents in adult-centered processes (Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, 2017). Adult allyship with youth is simultaneously a condition for and a product of youth-adult partnerships, in which youth and adults share power in decision-making through a collaborative process that can be mutually beneficial to the youth, adults, organization(s), and community through which the partnership is taking place (Ramey et al., 2017;Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, 2017;Zeldin et al., 2013). OE practitioners and those conducting research within OE programs have a responsibility to facilitate young people's sustained and meaningful participation in the programs and research that impacts them. ...
... What are the impacts of youth participation on adults in OE-including the adult allies facilitating the process, those who participate incidentally, and those who do so reluctantly? • Further understanding is needed around the specific role of adults in youth participation, including the skills needed and the power negotiations that occur in youth participation contexts (Ramey et al., 2017;Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, 2017). Given the unique conditions of OE, are there additional skills or considerations around the role of adults that need to be considered? ...
... Most literature on youth participation has focused on refining existing models or offering alternatives (Arunkumar et al., 2019). Models continue to be proposed and refined as researchers and practitioners wrestle to understand the most appropriate and effective tension between youth and adult control (Ramey et al., 2017). These models are outlined next. ...
This paper explores opportunities for outdoor recreation and education programs to support communities working to sustain or increase community vibrancy. Vibrancy is necessarily linked to our natural environment and the quality of and access to natural environments can impact community vibrancy outcomes. Outdoor recreation access and experiences support relationships with place via natural assets. A community’s natural assets and associated recreation, ecosystem services, economic, and broader wellbeing benefits collectively serve to elevate community vibrancy. Nature-based Placemaking (NBP) is an emerging community development framework that builds on a community’s natural assets to bolster community vibrancy. NBP could serve as a roadmap for nature-based community vibrancy efforts, providing direction and considerations for navigating vibrancy related challenges and opportunities. This work provides an NBP overview, outlines embedded concepts that informed development of the framework, explores its initial application, and poses questions and pathways for expanding and refining the NBP framework for broader applicability.
... Adults are critical allies in the successful inclusion of youth as fully actualized agents in adult-centered processes (Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, 2017). Adult allyship with youth is simultaneously a condition for and a product of youth-adult partnerships, in which youth and adults share power in decision-making through a collaborative process that can be mutually beneficial to the youth, adults, organization(s), and community through which the partnership is taking place (Ramey et al., 2017;Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, 2017;Zeldin et al., 2013). OE practitioners and those conducting research within OE programs have a responsibility to facilitate young people's sustained and meaningful participation in the programs and research that impacts them. ...
... Most literature on youth participation has focused on refining existing models or offering alternatives (Arunkumar et al., 2019). Models continue to be proposed and refined as researchers and practitioners wrestle to understand the most appropriate and effective tension between youth and adult control (Ramey et al., 2017). These models are outlined next. ...
... In 2003, Checkoway and Richards-Schuster predicted future studies would describe the benefits and potential negative outcomes of youth participation. Since then, several studies have highlighted the impacts on youth, organizations, and society (Ramey et al., 2017), but there is a need to investigate the impacts on adults (Richards-Schuster & Timmermans, ...
When considering community impacts of outdoor education (OE), youth are community members, leaders, and experts who can and should be meaningfully involved in the design and evaluation of OE programs and research that impact them. Ensuring youth have agency in these processes can create opportunities for building community (Brennan, 2008), making connections with diverse audiences (Arunkumar et al., 2019), cultivating youth leadership development (Brennan, 2008), and connecting multiple generations with each other and with the outdoors (D’Amore, 2016; Mannion et al., 2010; Peterson et al., 2019). Additionally, youth are leading movements toward the future they want for themselves and those who will come after them. Adults are critical allies in the success of these movements. Researchers and practitioners of OE have a responsibility to facilitate young people’s meaningful participation in the programs and related research that impact them in order to more fully realize the previously noted community impacts. This paper summarizes select models for youth participation which can be applied specifically in OE contexts and provides suggestions for practice and future research to spark conversations around how OE practitioners and researchers as adult allies can engage youth as community leaders in every phase of program and research design and implementation.
... In effort to create an inclusive research collective and democratic space for knowledge production across age differences-with preconceived age-related assumptions about skills and research proficiency-LIFT adopted a youth-led adult partnership model (Ramey et al., 2017;Zeldin, 2013) for its work, characterized by youth and adults taking the time to create and iteratively recreate a shared vision. The youth-adult partnership was designed to facilitate deep participation, i.e. research with not on youth participants. ...
This paper is a reflection on 3 years of youth engagement in neighbourhood-based geographic research on the state of social infrastructure in East Scarborough, Toronto, Canada. It revolves around the evolution of LIFT, a youth-led advocacy group with the mandate to engage youth in community-based research to identify gaps in resources and inform local organizations about youth priorities. Using critical reflection as research method, we explore how community geography can be a responsive approach to the needs of youth to analyze their lived experience and collect data to influence decision-making in their communities. We articulate a series of propositions and core assumptions to inform a non-adultist, youth-focused community geography, highlight the ethical dimensions of this work, as well as discuss the often-complicated institutional and interpersonal dynamics that shape the success and sustainability of youth-led community geography.
... Researchers working collaboratively with youth in intervention design might capture youth expertise in defining target problems and identifying preferred intervention strategies, potentially making the final program more likely to meet youth needs (Tseng et al., 2018); however, youth are not commonly included in this process (Jacquez et al., 2013). Few published studies describe the process of co-creating civic engagement programs with racially and ethnically diverse youth (Ramey et al., 2017), particularly those youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (Wray-Lake & Abrams, 2020), with the explicit goal of improving youth wellbeing (Nelson et al., 2019). ...
... We also incorporated several goal-directed strategies across program sessions: youth-adult partnerships to help guide youth through their action project (Akiva et al., 2017;Lakin & Mahoney, 2006), participatory research principles to facilitate youth-driven action planning (Ramey et al., 2017), weekly time for reflection to write memos about their experience in the program (Lakin & Mahoney, 2006), engagement of the broader communities to learn more about the selected issue (Christens & Dolan, 2011;Ramey et al., 2017), and opportunities to participate in action and engage in conversations about social inequities (Christens & Dolan, 2011;Hipolito-Delgado & Zion, 2017). These best practices informed our preliminary logic model for the pilot program, which we named LEAP: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Activism Program (see Appendix S1). ...
... We also incorporated several goal-directed strategies across program sessions: youth-adult partnerships to help guide youth through their action project (Akiva et al., 2017;Lakin & Mahoney, 2006), participatory research principles to facilitate youth-driven action planning (Ramey et al., 2017), weekly time for reflection to write memos about their experience in the program (Lakin & Mahoney, 2006), engagement of the broader communities to learn more about the selected issue (Christens & Dolan, 2011;Ramey et al., 2017), and opportunities to participate in action and engage in conversations about social inequities (Christens & Dolan, 2011;Hipolito-Delgado & Zion, 2017). These best practices informed our preliminary logic model for the pilot program, which we named LEAP: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Activism Program (see Appendix S1). ...
Although research suggests neighborhood‐level factors influence youth well‐being, few studies include youth when creating interventions to address these factors. We describe our three‐step process of collaborating with youth in low‐income communities to develop an intervention focused on civic engagement as a means to address neighborhood‐level problems impacting their well‐being. In the first step, we analyzed qualitative interviews from a project in which youth shared perceptions about their neighborhoods (e.g., interpersonal relations with neighbors and institutions). Three major themes were identified: pride in youth’s communities, desire for change, and perceptions of power and responsibility. Based on these themes, we completed the second step: developing a civic engagement and leadership program, called LEAP, aimed at helping youth take an active role in addressing neighborhood problems. In the third step, we collaborated with youth who completed a pilot version of the civic program and provided feedback to finalize it for large‐scale testing. While discussing our process, we highlight the importance of including youth voices when developing programs that affect them. Furthermore, we note the need for more research exploring whether civic engagement serves as a mechanism for encouraging youth involvement in addressing neighborhood‐level health disparities and identifying potential psychological costs of such involvement. Youth should have a voice in the creation and implementation of programs intended for them. Neighborhoods may impact youth wellbeing through resource availability and a negative social mirror. Developing programs through academic‐youth partnerships can facilitate aligning with youth’s goals. Youth can identify and problem‐solve their neighborhood challenges as civic leaders.
... Reflecting on feminist activism with girls they argue successful "partnerships with girls require that we trust them as experts in their own experience" (2016, p. 706). Ramey et al. (2017) offer a variety of ways of conceptualizing youth-adult partnerships however it should be remembered that youth led climate activism is not ostensibly a youth-adult partnership but is one that places youth front and center in the process. In this respect it appears Liou and Literat are right when they suggest that: "the simplest way adult allies can demonstrate solidarity is by learning how to decenter themselves and stepping out of the way of youth organizers (2020, p. 4677)." ...
This research explores young people's attitudes toward adult involvement within “youth led” youth climate groups. Young people were acutely aware of their marginalization and overall, there was a consensus that adults played a useful role as a resource, as experienced adult activists possessed knowledge that they lacked, or in offering practical support on legal issues or liaising with the police. The attitudes of young people to adult involvement is at times paradoxical in that whilst they were aware of its necessity, adults altered the dynamics of the groups, as there was a “power gap” and that adults' views could take precedence. As a result, on some occasions the young people parted ways from the adults. A continual theme from the research was that young people's involvement in “youth climate groups” gave them a sense of empowerment and they were much more aware of how to effect change, and to some extent they did need the support of adults in this process, often due to their structural disempowerment. The findings suggest that adult involvement was most successful when adults were committed to empowering young people and the researchers suggest that Kirshner's model of “cycles of fading” is a useful framework for adult involvement.
