Actively engaging youth participants in a variety of ways promotes fresh ideas and revitalizes decision-making. But moving from token youth involvement to supporting your mission with meaningful partnerships with youth may seem complicated. This book from Search Institute – a leader in programs to strengthen communities and foster healthy young people – guides you in building rewarding collaboration.

Learn how to recruit youth participants and welcome them with useful orientations, conduct successful, engaging intergenerational meetings, build strong relationships between youth and adult participants, support youth in leadership roles; and evaluate your partnerships over time to measure success and to identify opportunities for improvement.

In addition to practical strategies, the volume offers success stories from around the United States and Canada that demonstrate youth-adult partnerships in action. Learn how these groups have put theory into practice, reaping the tremendous benefits of working shoulder-to-shoulder with young people. Here you’ll find the inspiration, resources, and tools that you need to build a youth-adult partnership of your own.

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Organizations that develop effective youth-adult partnerships become more connected and responsive to youth in their community. In that way, organizations become more relevant, especially those that serve youth. “I don’t know what’s cool, but young people do,” says Paul Vidas, director for the Fox Cities , Wisconsin , United with Youth Initiative. “They’re the experts. If you want to appeal to any given population of youth, you have to ask them .”

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