Technical Brief: Making the Pitch for Youth Engagement
In order for positive youth development to take hold, practitioners must understand why meaningful youth engagement is important. Making this case can be a difficult task, particularly in environments where young people may be seen purely as recipients of services having no valuable contributions to make—or even worse, where youth simply are not a priority. As the largest-ever youth generation continues to grow, it is important that we know how to pitch youth engagement to a variety of audiences, from local public officials to senior staff persons. This technical brief provides tips gathered from members of the YouthPower Youth Engagement Community of Practice for pitching meaningful and ongoing youth engagement to different actors. Suggested messages are presented based on scenarios that practitioners often encounter.