Mobilizing young people for youth development 
is one of the most crucial aspects for success in a community initiative or engagement model, but it is also one that is most often forgotten or pushed to the side. This month highlights a number of communities that have not forgotten to actively engage their youth and have fantastic results to show for it.
The Youth Partnership for Health
Colorado’s Youth Partnership for Health (YPH), a teen advisory committee for health issues in the state, 
is nearly ten years old, 25 youth members deep and eleven towns and cities strong. The goal of the YPH is to serve as a sounding board and bring youthful perspectives to all services and programs that impact youth. Adults from a wide variety of departments within the Department of Public Health, as well as external health groups, rely on the YPH to provide feedback and advice. But to really understand the importance of the YPH, you have to talk to the youth.
When Young People Feel Powerful: EBC Bushwick High School, an Asset Lab
Step into the parent coordinator’s office at EBC and you will find Ms. Trinidad and the rest of the Assets planning team huddled over pizza, hammering out Asset building strategies to help students understand how vital their voices truly are.
Definition of an Asset Lab:
A school or community based organization which intentionally weaves the Assets approach into their program practices; one which applies lessons learned and technical assistance from the NYC Asset Lab Project to make positive changes that affect young people.
The team takes their job as Asset Champions seriously- whether it’s reflecting on the school’s climate, dialoguing on EBC’s strengths and challenges, recruiting new staff and students to join the team or brainstorming new strategies for making change.
Giving Every Student a Chance to Shine: Increasing Youth Engagement at Boys and Girls Republic New Beginnings School
As a student at her zoned high school, Sarina felt lost in the mix of a huge school. Her school was overcrowded and there were no teachers with whom she made a connection. Sarina recalls, “I started slacking, especially second semester. I went up and down like a roller coaster. I was still slacking in the 10th grade.” Sarina heard about BGR [Boys and Girls Republic school] and enrolled mid-way through her sophomore year. Like many of the BGR students, she struggled with the transition from middle school and self selected to attend New Beginnings at BGR- seeing it as an opportunity to change her life. Feeling disconnected from school and unmotivated to learn, these young people, out of frustration and an inability to succeed in school, often rebel by acting out or dropping out. However some, like Sarina, are still hoping to make it through high school. They arrive at the doors of New Beginnings at BGR hungry for attention, waiting to be challenged, to be engaged and to be heard.
Socializing Digitally by danah boyd
So what exactly are teens doing on MySpace? 
Simple: they’re hanging out. Of course, ask any teen what they’re doing with their friends in general; they’ll most likely shrug their shoulders and respond nonchalantly with “just hanging out”. Hanging out amongst friends allows teens to build relationships and stay connected. Much of what is shared between youth is culture ñ fashion, music, media. The rest is simply presence. This is important in the development of a social worldview.
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Article originally published in the Vodaphone Receiver Magazine
