youth driven spaces Approach

Let’s face it, engaging older youth in out-of-school time programming can be challenging. Older youth disengage when programs are not accessible or flexible; do not feel safe or they do not feel they belong; are adult-controlled; lack meaningful responsibility; are misaligned with their identity and interests.

In partnership with the Weikart Center for Program Quality and Michigan State University’s Community Evaluation Research Collaborative, and drawing on more than 20 years experience, the Neutral Zone has developed the Youth Driven Spaces (YDS) model. YDS is not a standalone curriculum or program, it is a way of organizing relationships, leadership, participation, and organizational practice.

Pillars of Youth Driven Spaces

Cultivating belonging and a restorative climate

Tapping into teens’ intrinsic motivation

Catalyzing young peoples’ developmental opportunities

Fostering genuine partnerships between youth and adults

Sustainable youth-driven practice requires alignment across all three levels

The YDS approach is designed to increase youth engagement and buy-in, develop 21st century and socio-emotional learning skills, raise program quality, and prepare young people to participate in a democratic society. By incorporating practices and strategies that use program, organization and governance roles as opportunities youth build proficiencies, increase participation and engagement.

Such practices lead to a culture of youth-adult partnership, which redistributes power and, in result, young people’s perspectives and ideas genuinely shape decisions that impact their lives.

What would happen if we provided students supports and opportunities to take a greater leadership role? How might schools be more effective if students partnered with adults as co-contributors to classroom and school-wide goals ? What other skills could we foster in students through a new approach to youth engagement?

In 2023 the Youth Driven Spaces team of staff and field consultants developed a mission statement and values to guide our work. Our team strives to nurture youth-adult partnerships through dynamic practices for youth and their adult allies as they build cultures to amplify and revere youth voice and decision making.

YDS Values

Relationships

YDS is relationship centered. Trust and communication are at the heart of relationships and serve as the foundation through which youth and adults connect and work together. 

We facilitate experiences that strengthen connection and understanding by encouraging everyone to show up as their authentic selves as they speak and listen from their hearts

Community

We believe that being connected to others and having a shared purpose or passion is the essence of community. Experiencing  community fosters belonging, support, and opportunities for personal and shared growth.

We intend to shape spaces where everyone feels valued and accepted as they interact together with mutuality and a collective spirit.

Equity

YDS is a movement rooted in liberation. We believe ”nobody’s free until everybody’s free,”* and recognize the enduring impact of supremacist power structures on our community members. 

Collective liberation requires equitable practices that honor intersectionality. We work to concurrently amplify youth voices while dismantling adultism and other inequities. In order to advance equity we commit to transparency, fair process, and critical consciousness. 

* Fannie Lou Hamer

Being Restorative

Restorative practices seek to deepen connections and strengthen communication between people. Relationships and community are foundational to being restorative. Being restorative requires a commitment to accountability and a willingness to engage in a restorative, non-punitive process when harm occurs.

We aim to lead with empathy, support healing and well-being, and affirm everyone’s story must be honored.