I am going through notes from workshops over the last few years. One of the questions I ask in youth involvement workshops is What pitfalls are there to youth involvement? Following are several of the answers that have been shared repeatedly over more than a dozen workshops with hundreds of adults across the country.
- Potential to get off topic
- Increase in upfront planning time
- More time needed for ongoing operations, including reflection
- Additional time to plan with youth needed for staff
- Difficult to find planning time that works for youth
- Stigmas about youth involvement
- Adultism manifesting itself as tension between youth and adults
- Adults not sensitive to youth readiness for involvement
- Adults uncomfortable with youth involvement
- Adults not wanting youth to be involved
- Youth fearful of formal meeting setting
- Youth who manipulate the planning processes
- Youth involvement becomes negative
These are the repeating patterns – let’s see what comes out of the anomalies next.
Written by Adam Fletcher, this article was originally posted to http://commonaction.blogspot.com. Learn more at adamfletcher.net!
