“Nothing about us without us!”

I’m not sure which person or movement coined this slogan. For the moment I’m going to refrain from searching the Google to find out because it’s a rather efficient expression of the call for authentic engagement with any group of people, and so may just as easily be applied to youth as the group that originated the demand.

And it is youth who are on my mind this blog post. I’ve taken on the assignment of leading the development of Healthy Teen Network’s forthcoming position statement on “keeping youth at the center.”  (Side note: Our position statements are not only tools for us to share our stances on important issues, but they are also designed to serve as tools for our members, to reuse or adapt as needed, in your advocacy efforts.) We have introduced this slogan into our organization’s vocabulary, including as our 2018 conference theme, but this can have many interpretations. Essentially, “keeping youth at the center” is our support of “nothing about us without us” intentions. But beyond that…

My first step as I help Healthy Teen Network make meaning of “keeping youth at the center” in the form of a board-approved position statement will be to refresh my knowledge of positive youth development approaches. This theory has been around several decades now, so there’s much literature to draw from.

Second, I will dive into our organization’s own examination of authentic youth engagement. A group of board members and staff have studied the topic with an eye toward increasing Healthy Teen Network’s own practice of keeping youth at the center. I have their completed work from which to draw. (FYI, one way we are practicing keeping youth at the center is hosting a design challenge for youth and adults to answer the question, “How might we center pleasure in adolescent sex ed to foster authentic conversations about sexuality and promote positive sexual experiences?”.

And then, and where I need your help, I want to learn from youth themselves what are their recommendations for how “we” should go about keeping youth at the center of decision-making and action-taking about and with them. By “we” I include individuals and organizations that 1) raise, mentor and develop youth; 2) teach and serve youth; and 3) advocate for public policies that affect youth.

We’ve put together a survey that asks youth to answer, in their own words, this fundamental question: “How can adults keep youth at the center of decision-making about the things that matter to and affect youth?”

P.S. According to Wikipedia, the slogan “nothing about us without us” has origins in Central European political traditions and took on meaning in English in the 1990s in the disability rights movement.