Cultivating youth civic engagement in afterschool

Better academic performance, improved behavior, career readiness, stronger community connections, and overall well-being – these are all the benefits we describe for participation in high-quality afterschool programs. But they are also the benefits young people gain from participating in civic engagement activities in their communities!

We describe these outcomes and more in our new report “Improving Communities Through Youth Civic Engagement in Afterschool Settings,” which explores the landscape of youth civic engagement opportunities in the United States today and the role afterschool programs can play in nurturing civically engaged youth. As a supplemental resource, our online Practitioner’s Toolkit offers a curated set of resources to help afterschool programs on this journey.

The history of the 20^th century in the United States shows that young people have always been at the forefront of social change movements. It makes sense – they are not yet jaded and can more freely imagine possibilities for how things could be better when they look at the world. The 21^st century has already brought some big societal changes and the pace of those changes is only accelerating – the increased movement of people and jobs around the world, environmental degradation and its implications, and the rapid advance of new technologies. It is not unexpected that these changes are leading to unrest and discontent in many countries all over the world, including the United States. But many youth today feel cynical about receiving any help from the Government and despairing about their opportunities to improve their lives and their communities.

Our Collective for Youth Empowerment in STEM & Society (CYESS) initiative at the Afterschool Alliance was born out of the belief that many young people have great ideas for solving the challenges they see around them. Some have the tools and opportunities to make a difference—but most do not. Young people bring lived experiences and perspectives that are different from adults and offer crucial voices we must include if we are to solve today’s complex challenges to serve an intergenerational society.

Afterschool programs are rooted in their communities and can play a key role in supporting young people to grapple with challenges in a safe environment and think critically about how they want to productively engage with societal changes. Programs can support youth to identify issues that bother them, help them to think about how they might contribute to solving the problem, and mentor them in the process of meaningful and robust civic engagement.

This is not a new conversation but the issue continues to become ever more urgent. Across the U.S., many afterschool programs have been thinking about this for years while others are just getting started. More and more programs are incorporating youth voices meaningfully and intentionally into their efforts. At the same time, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming in afterschool has become widespread, offering a powerful opportunity to support young people to apply the skills, tools, and knowledge they are learning to engage in issues that matter to them if they are to make changes in today’s STEM-driven world.

Our report explores how we can bridge the civic opportunity gap for young people, the benefits and impact of youth civic engagement, how we could bridge civics education in schools with afterschool programs, and the growing intersection of STEM and civic engagement. We end with recommendations that can help us maximize youth civic engagement in afterschool programs. The wide range of recommendations are intended for programs, program designers, policymakers, funders and partners, and researchers. Two recommendations I will highlight are to break down silos and promote more cross-sector collaborations; and to synthesize existing research across STEM, civics, and youth development to effectively support youth in fully realizing their power and agency across all dimensions of their lives, rather than treating each topic as an isolated area.

If you are intrigued but a little unsure of how you might start, our practitioner’s toolkit will help you out! You will find answers to questions you may have about what civic engagement even means, read youth and program perspectives, and find curricula, professional development (PD) webinars, and more! 

Let’s make civic engagement opportunities as widespread as STEM in afterschool programs, and even better – let’s combine the two! STEM fields have been shaping our lives and society for a long time and will continue to do so. Just as we need to make sure every young person has the opportunity to gain both STEM literacy and STEM proficiency to effectively navigate and participate in the modern world and workforce, we need to make sure they have the agency, skills, and civic knowledge to shape the world they want to live in. But this takes practice - and afterschool programs are ideally positioned to support young people’s desire to make the world a better place by helping them engage meaningfully in their communities and starting with small steps to bring about the changes they want to see.

You don’t have to do this alone - our CYESS initiative is here to help you! Check out all the resources we have for you:

• Want to know more about civic engagement? Read our new Report, or take a quick peek at the Executive Summary.
• Want a guide? Check out the Civic Engagement Toolkit.
• Want to see what other programs are doing? Read the blogs.
  • We are always looking to highlight program examples to show what is possible. If you would like to share what you are doing and write a blog for us, contact us!
• Want partners? See who is in our expert Community of Practice.
  • If you are doing this work and want to join the Community, email us!
• Want some professional development to better understand what youth voice even means? Check out our PD videos on this topic!
• Want more resources? Check out our Resource Database.

We even have an initiative for young people in your programs who might want to offer up their expertise on panels, review legislation, or serve as advisors. Take a look at the CYESS Youth Consultants page and see if the young people you work with might want to join the consultant pool. (Or if you’d like to tap the expertise of this group, contact us.)

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