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It is essential to build the leadership capacity of young people to be partners in addressing the issues most relevant to them. Further, young people have firsthand or “lived” experience with how youth-serving systems work. This means young people can explore solutions that best meet their needs, making them effective partners for advocacy, policymaking, and systems change.

Who is this Toolkit for?

The NN4Y Youth-Adult Partnerships Toolkit is designed to guide youth service organizations to becoming better advocates for youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Our goal is to offer meaningful resources and strategies for those hoping to begin their youth-adult partnership work and those seeking to deepen their work.

The Toolkit is a dynamic and continually evolving document. We encourage you to engage with this resource regularly and share feedback and ideas that can keep our work as responsive and relevant as possible.

If you require additional support or have questions please contact us

Youth-Adult Partnership

A meaningful youth-adult partnership is inclusive and intentional between one or more young people and adults, whereby power is shared. To put this in the context of your work, youth-adult partnerships may take several forms:

  • Sharing power with youth to engage them in day-to-day decision-making relevant to their own lives
    • “How can I help you feel safe while you are staying here at this shelter?”
    • “Which of these different foster care placement options would you be most comfortable with?” 
    • “What are your goals for our therapy session and how can I help you meet those goals?”
  • Sharing power with youth within your organization
    • Engaging youth in decisions about service planning or design
    • Engaging youth in service delivery; for example, as peer navigators or peer support specialists
  • Engaging youth as partners in decision-making for their communities
    • Engaging youth in systems-level activities, such as advocacy, service coordination, or allocation of resources

Engaging youth in systems-level activities, such as advocacy, service coordination, or allocation of resources

Sharing Power with Youth

Youth-Adult Partnerships are about sharing power with youth. To share power means that youth and young adults are equal partners and that organizations build youths’ capacity and development in their interactions with youth. Organizations need to be intentional in how they develop young people as leaders. Youth-adult partnerships aim to build young leaders and eventually transfer that power.

What Is Not a Genuine Youth Adult Partnership?

Youth-adult partnerships are not ways to hide that programs are designed, implemented, and run only by adults. Tokenism is not sharing power with youth and will leave young people feeling used rather than empowered. 

For example, tokenism could include such actions as:

  • Having young people around with no clear role to play
  • Assigning youth-only those tasks that adults do not want to fulfill
  • Having youth make media appearances without any voice in developing the messages, programs, or policies
  • Having one youth on a board of directors or council to point to as youth involvement