Activities
"Youth-adult partnerships happen when young people and adults become engaged together in their communities; they are relationships between youth and adults where there is mutuality in teaching, learning, and action." These relationships usually occur within youth organizations, where they are typified by youth voice, and in democratic schools, where they are typified by student voice. Youth/adult partnerships often display a high degree of youth rights and autonomy, and is often synonymous with meaningful youth participation.
According to the State of Texas, youth-adult partnerships have allowed young people to assume the roles of advisors and consultants to youth organizations, political lobbyists, community organizers, grant (money) decision-makers, nonprofit board directors, and as direct youth service providers.
Youth-adult partnerships are said to allow young people to
- Express themselves publicly
- Gain respect for adult allies
- Find ways to express their creativity
- Work for a good cause
- Think more critically
- Be a valued asset to the project and the community
Research consistently shows that in addition to concrete outcomes, youth/adult partnerships require specific cultural and structural supports within organizations and communities in order to succeed. Youth voice is commonly recognized as an essential element of effective youth/adult partnerships.
Read more about this topic: Youth-adult Partnership
Famous quotes containing the word activities:
“...I have never known a “movement” in the theater that did not work direct and serious harm. Indeed, I have sometimes felt that the very people associated with various “uplifting” activities in the theater are people who are astoundingly lacking in idealism.”
—Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“If it is to be done well, child-rearing requires, more than most activities of life, a good deal of decentering from one’s own needs and perspectives. Such decentering is relatively easy when a society is stable and when there is an extended, supportive structure that the parent can depend upon.”
—David Elkind (20th century)