Youth with Influence: The Youth Planner Initiative in Hampton, Virginia

This field report introduces Youth Planners - high school-aged young people in the city of Hampton, in the United States, who work as city planners creating policy, tackling issues considered important to the city’s youth, staffing a commission of young people who serve as the voice of local youth, and championing their own component of the Hampton Community Plan. According to the article, Hampton’s Youth Planner initiative has dramatically increased the opportunities for youth to have a voice in local government and the way community leaders and government officials view them. This article shares lessons about the benefits and challenges of working within an extensive system of youth civic engagement, and within a youth and adult partnership.

The Youth Planners focus on researching, drafting, promoting, monitoring, or implementing policy that is youth-focused and youth-driven. The youth planners work with a 24 teen-member Youth Commission that sets the overall direction for the city's youth agenda on an annual basis, guided by their up dated list of strategic issues in a Community Plan. According to the article, the success of the Youth Planner initiative and Hampton's broader youth civic engagement approach depend on strong youth and adult partnerships and ongoing attention to the importance of adults viewing young people as resources. There is close communication among adults staffing the initiative and a continuing dialogue focused on maintaining a system that honours and empowers young people while creating a strong base of adult support. The overall aim of the youth programme is to ensure that youth issues are incorporated into city planning, and to encourage young people's civic participation.

The following lessons have been learned

• It is important to have a champion for youth involvement and a local government culture that encourages innovation and risk-taking. Initial success will depend on reallocation of resources and a deep commitment to taking the effort that is needed to make it work.
• Adults involved in the initiative need training in youth development principles and how to operate within a youth and adult partnership. Youth need leadership skills and the opportunity to exercise them long before becoming a Planner or seeking a place on a board or commission.
• The Planning Department must be committed to devoting as much attention and resources to the Youth Planners as any other position.
• Working with youth is challenging and requires continuous attention. They require additional explanation about the policies and procedures of a world that is initially foreign to them, and guidance as how to navigate it. One specific challenge is that just at their peak of effectiveness, it is often time for them to leave. Hampton staggers Youth Planner and Commissioner positions so that there are always older youth to mentor younger peers.
• The Youth Planner programme can only be as successful as the Youth Commission that supports it. A vibrant and active commission of young people is dependent on having enough meaningful opportunities for them to pursue as well as attracting those youth who have a passion for making a difference and adults who will view their work with youth as more than an assignment. There needs to be an understanding of the importance of investing in youth as part of the solution, rather than labeling and focusing only on youth at risk and seeing them as the problem.
• Young people join groups, volunteer and gain passion for their work when they learn to know and trust a group of caring adults who “get it.” Youth need guidance and support to be effective, not adults who dictate how things will be or abdicate all responsibility to them.
• Engaging young people must be an inclusive process. Any young person can join the neighbourhood and school-based leadership groups, and an effort is made to attract a diversity of youth. Then, the young people who express interest or catch the eye of current planners, commissioners, or adult allies are invited to apply for the selective positions of board representatives, Youth Commission, or Youth Planner. A relaxed, fun interview with small group scenarios is held for all applicants in order to tap into potential young people who are not the “superstars.” At the end of the interview, everyone votes on who would make a good representative, commissioner, or planner