Youth Engagement: Lessons Learned

To learn more about YARH grantees’ experiences, challenges, and solutions related to engaging youth, Mathematica hosted a peer-learning experience in summer 2020. Six YARH grantees shared their experiences engaging youth and young adults at risk of homelessness in services. The YARH grantees responded to prepared questions to help guide the discussion (see questions at the end of the brief). This brief summarizes lessons learned from YARH grantees regarding youth engagement in the initial implementation of interventions.

Grantees and the evaluation TA teams identified a variety of strategies and lessons learned regarding youth engagement in the initial implementation of interventions:

• Engagement should be early and creative
• Building rapport sets the stage for sustained engagement
• Goal setting is an opportunity to encourage youth voice and youth choice
• Use multiple methods to know if, when, and to what extent youth are engaged

Based on the strategies developed and lessons learned, the brief offers considerations that support youth engagement in services.

Data for this brief come from conversations between Phase II grantees and Mathematica technical assistance liaisons, including a Peer-Learning Experience focused on youth engagement. The authors synthesized information from grantees to identify themes that resonated with more than one grantee.

Individuals who work with youth can benefit from examining their expectations of youth and their engagement in services. Youth at risk of homelessness often have experienced trauma, racism, gender-based violence, and other systemic problems. Individuals should ask themselves:  How do these experiences affect youth and their perceptions of services and staff? Do youth of all ages engage with services in the same way? Or is youth engagement shaped, in part, by the program, its expectations, and the youth’s age?

Individuals who work with youth can achieve authentic and ongoing youth engagement but might need to be flexible and creative in how they engage youth. It is important for practitioners to view youth engagement as a process rather than an outcome.

Individuals who work with system-involved youth should try to give them the same opportunities as youth who are not involved in the child welfare system, as appropriate. This means allowing youth to fail forward and supporting them through learning experiences.

N. Mix, E. Clary, and M.C. Bradley (2021). Youth Engagement: Lessons Learned. OPRE Report 2021-101.  Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services