Every Hour Counts, in partnership with Youthprise, launched the Powered by Youth Voice: Future Directions for Afterschool initiative in 2022, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Powered by Youth Voice empowers young people as co-creators and designers of solutions to issues impacting their peers and communities. Powered by Youth Voice offers meaningful opportunities for youth to transform programs and systems intended to serve them by engaging them in program design, data collection, grant distribution, policy and systems change, and more.
Youth at Every Hour Counts’ 2021 came together to share ideas for building better afterschool programs and investing in their communities. Through a two-hour design thinking experience, youth developed six ideas to reimagine afterschool.
Building on key learnings from youth development best practices and Every Hour Counts National Conferences, this initiative is centered around the idea that young people are experts in their experiences and deserve the platform to shape their communities. Key components of the initiative include a national youth survey, local youth planning teams, an intergenerational advisory committee, participatory grantmaking, capacity building led by Every Hour Counts and Youthprise, and youth convenings.
National Youth Survey
To better understand the current state of afterschool and what youth want for the future, we partnered with two leading research firms, Informed Change and Hamai Consulting, to develop a National Youth Survey co-created with a team of youth researchers. The survey reached over 1,000 youth from more than 300 afterschool programs nationwide. When asked to describe their ideal afterschool program, youth told us it’s a place where “you would feel the love when you walked in,” and a safe place for sharing concerns and talking about “hard issues.” Read the full report.
Youth Ideas Power Afterschool
Culminating from months of design thinking, research, peer learning and presentation development, 60 youth ages 12-19 shared their ideas to reimagine afterschool with youth at the center. Youth leaders were selected and supported for community-based planning efforts at After School Matters in Chicago, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Flint, Kalamazoo Youth Development Network, Nashville After Zone Alliance, Providence After School Alliance, and Prime Time Palm Beach County.
Local Impact to National Policy & Systems Change
The youth participating in Powered by Youth Voice have shared their transformative impact on various stages, including the first-ever interagency White House Youth Policy Summit. Their contributions showcase the tangible outcomes of youth-led initiatives and reaffirm the importance of youth voice and leadership in decision-making processes at all levels.
The youth participating in Powered by Youth Voice have shared their transformative impact on various stages, including the first-ever interagency White House Youth Policy Summit. Their contributions showcase the tangible outcomes of youth-led initiatives and reaffirm the importance of youth voice and leadership in decision-making processes at all levels.
Join the Movement!
We've learned a lot from the pilot stages of this work and youth participants have been proud the impact on their communities. We are excited to scale this work to reach more communities and to carry forward the next stages informed by youth and adult partners.
Interested in learning more about Powered by Youth Voice? Contact Hikma Sherka, Every Hour Counts’ Director of Youth Engagement at hsherka@everyhourcounts.org