Youth engagement happens in a variety of places. Each place where youth engagement happens isn’t necessarily a physical place or a set of activities. Because of this, I call these “Spheres of Youth Engagement.”
Youth Engagement can happen within a person, including their emotional, psychological, or physical well-being. In other cases, young people are seen as disengaged when they aren’t sustainably connected to their family, peers, faith communities, school, and other community settings. There is generally little concern when young people aren’t seen as connected to society, as these areas are generally seen as places for adults to be engaged. These locations including mass media, industry and the economy, social services, their neighbors, and local politics.
- Self: emotional, psychological, or physical well-being
- Families: home, recreation, decision-making, food and nutrition, culture
- Community: peers, faith communities, school, and other community settings
- Society: mass media, industry and the economy, social services, their neighbors, and politics
- Find out more from my new publication available FREE as a pdf, A Short Introduction to Youth Engagement.
Adam F.C. Fletcher 