Young people have a lot to contribute.

In 2010, the Ready by 21 Youth Engagement Team produced video segments showcasing how youth can have a voice and be involved in creating solutions to community problems.

Watch the videos here: 

• Health Panel - Final
• Relationship Panel
• Civic Engagement Panel

They can help identify community challenges and solutions to address them.

Youth facilitators led 14 focus groups with more than 70 youth participants in Spring 2004. Each group also had a note-taker and an adult sponsor there for support. The youth were involved with these agencies: American YouthWorks, Goodwill, Communities In Schools, Gardner-Betts Juvenile Justice Facility, Texas Youth Commission, OutYouth, Safe Teens at Reagan High School and the YWgearCA.

Here's a summary of the problems and needs youth brought up in the focus groups:

• We need safe places to hang out
• We need jobs (it's frustrating that we can't get a job without work experience, but without a job, we don't have work experience)
• It's hard to get enough attention or help in school
• It's difficult to navigate the health care system, with insurance, Medicaid, emergency room use, reproductive services, being able to ask for and get help and be treated respectfully, and for teen parents to know how to get help for their own sick children
• School counselors and most other adults don't treat us with respect

Want to find out more about what the youth said in the focus groups?