The Power of Engagement
Youth engagement is the foundational and cross-cutting strategy of the Jim Casey Initiative.
This issue brief explores the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative’s (JCYOI) experience in developing and implementing youth leadership boards. It includes the perspectives of young people in foster care and the adults engaged with them.
For adolescents, having voice means being an equal partner, receiving respect, participating in all aspects of decision making and goal setting. Youth that have a voice in outcomes that affect them feel included, respected, engaged, productive, relevant and powerful. These feelings help the adolescent brain develop higher-level functions that includes advanced reasoning, abstract and critical thinking, analysis of complex issues and comparitive analysis before making decisions. It’s the piece that helps transitions kids to adults.