Grounding Youth Well-Being in Community Context

A new action guide shows local coali­tions how to embed their community’s voic­es, val­ues and his­to­ry into every step of their work to improve pub­lic sys­tems for youth and fam­i­lies. From Peo­ple to Place and Pow­er: Coali­tions that Suc­ceed by Ground­ing Efforts in Com­mu­ni­ty Con­text is the fourth and lat­est in the Guid­ing Col­lec­tive Change series. The col­lec­tion of free, down­load­able action guides was devel­oped by the Edna Ben­nett Pierce Pre­ven­tion Research Cen­ter at Penn State with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion. From Peo­ple to Place and Pow­er draws on lessons from six com­mu­ni­ties using the Foundation’s Evidence2Success^® frame­work. Their sto­ries show how local coali­tions used data and rela­tion­ships to dri­ve deci­sions that reflect the com­mu­ni­ties they serve and posi­tion them for last­ing change.

Amir François, a senior research asso­ciate at the Casey Foun­da­tion, explained: ​“This guide offers a pow­er­ful les­son: When coali­tions pri­or­i­tize com­mu­ni­ty wis­dom and expe­ri­ence along with data and evi­dence, the work is not only more rel­e­vant — it can real­ly have some impact.”

For coali­tions in these the sites, ground­ing change in com­mu­ni­ty con­text meant rethink­ing deci­sion-mak­ing, ele­vat­ing res­i­dent lead­er­ship and ensur­ing pro­grams reflect­ed local val­ues and experiences:

• In Prov­i­dence, Rhode Island, a res­i­dent-led advi­so­ry board helped select cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant programs.
• Kearns, Utah, used youth sur­vey data and ​“data par­ties” with res­i­dents to guide pro­gram choices.
• Sel­ma, Alaba­ma, held meet­ings in schools and church­es to make the work more acces­si­ble and local­ly rooted.
• Mem­phis, Ten­nessee, host­ed ses­sions to uncov­er bar­ri­ers to youth thriv­ing, a process known as ​“back-map­ping.”
• In a Mia­mi, Flori­da, neigh­bor­hood, youth focus groups helped sur­face men­tal health priorities.
• Mobile, Alaba­ma, used sur­vey results to build urgency and align­ment across coali­tion members.

These com­mu­ni­ties worked with pub­lic sys­tems — includ­ing schools, health providers and child wel­fare agen­cies — to improve out­comes for youth and fam­i­lies by plac­ing com­mu­ni­ty pri­or­i­ties at the heart of the work. ​“It wasn’t just num­bers on a page any­more,” said a local leader quot­ed in the guide. ​“It was our community’s story.”

From Peo­ple to Place and Pow­er is part of a series of pub­li­ca­tions on col­lec­tive change, which high­lights how local com­mu­ni­ties can shift pub­lic sys­tems to bet­ter sup­port youth well-being. Access the full series on the Edna Ben­nett Pierce Pre­ven­tion Research Cen­ter at Penn State web­site.