Urban Alliance: Building a Foundation for Intentional Youth Engagement
A national nonprofit building a diverse next-generation workforce by providing job skills training, mentoring, and paid internships to high-school-age youth primarily in communities of color, Urban Alliance is considering ways to engage young people in its alumni network in program design and, possibly, future policy and advocacy activities. It’s keen on getting this right, and is grappling with many of the issues discussed above.
We interviewed Urban Alliance Chief Program Officer Seema Sabnani about this work.
Why does Urban Alliance believe it’s important for young people to engage in policy making and advocacy?
Policies directly impact the young people we engage in our programming, and young people have unique perspectives that we value. If we involve more young people now in our program design and policy considerations, then we can help ensure diverse representation at the decision-making table where policies, funding, and resources are discussed. We also recognize that educating, informing, and engaging young people as early as possible can prepare them to be effective policy advocates.
What considerations are you grappling with currently when thinking about programming that connects Urban Alliance’s alumni to policy?
We are currently grappling with how to build a solid foundation for thoughtful partnership and programmatic co-production among our alumni and the young adults we engage. We believe that building a solid foundation of partnership and engagement, and hearing directly from youth about their needs and experiences with our programing is key in setting us up for success in future activities that involve working with young adults in policy and advocacy.
We are currently building a foundation of Urban Alliance youth-adult co-production through our Youth Advisory Council (YAC). The YAC’s goal is to facilitate an opportunity for our young people to provide deeper insight and more accuracy to Urban Alliance’s evaluative and programmatic work. The YAC engages young people to foster more inclusive and culturally accurate evaluative and programmatic efforts while developing their technical and interpersonal skills. As a result of their work, the evaluation team will create better measurement tools and regions will receive invaluable feedback.
We’re also mindful that there are other organizations out there that have been successful in policy engagement, and in engaging youth in program design and policy and advocacy. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but rather be intentional about learning from others’ success and challenges. We also rely on our mission and vision to guide us in seeking opportunities to engage in strategic partnerships with other organizations that can be leveraged for policymaking and advocacy in the future.
What would be the ideal outcomes of engaging Urban Alliance’s alumni in policy and advocacy?
We’re looking to build a policymaking infrastructure that reflects a co-production process where our alumni and the young adults we engage with decide on the issue areas we focus on and where as an intermediary we’ll continue supporting and facilitating their connection and engagement across stakeholders.