“The essence of youth involvement is a partnership between adults and young people—one in which each party has the opportunity to make suggestions and decisions and in which the contribution of each is recognized and valued.” —Advocates for Youth
Adultism is prejudice or discrimination against young people as a group. The National Youth Rights Association further defines adultism as “behaviors and attitudes based on the assumption that adults are better than young people, and entitled to act upon young people without their agreement. This mistreatment is reinforced by social institutions, laws, customs, and attitudes.”
Adultism should be combated in every workspace because it adds to the stigma that children and youth are inferior and incapable. It also excludes their voices, opinions, and expertise in industries where their knowledge is needed and resourceful.
Below are some key pointers on combating adultism, from EBGTZ and other credible organizations.
Do:
- Find ways to include young people’s experience alongside adult professional experience.
- Make projects/events where both parties (young adults and seasoned professionals) have a chance to take leadership positions.
- Respect both parties’ experiences, opinions, and contributions throughout the entire event/project process.
- Schedule teamings where young adults can attend in their full capacity, whether in-person or virtual.
- Be honest but kind. Many of the youth are doing this for the first time; give them time to learn and develop.
Do Not:
- Don’t showcase tokenism. It does not equal an authentic partnership for/with the youth.
- Don’t leave youth to fend for themselves. There should be proper guidance with clear directions/instructions to follow based on their interpretations.
- Don’t give only the grunt work to youth. If adults don’t want to do it, then surely young adults don’t want to, either.
- Don’t provide young adults expectations with little to no training.
- Create (youth) boards with less than three youth present.
- Avoid having many meetings without youth, especially if decisions will affect them.
- Don’t be pushy. Don’t expect more from the youth than they have learned.
Resources organizations can use to battle adultism:
Dismantling Adultism Tool Kit: Creating and maintaining a youth-centered organization
- Purpose: Help organize and structure your org in a way that is more youth-focused
- Description: “Raise up the voices of young people and demonstrate to organizations how to do the same with actionable tools. This toolkit is intended to promote action towards becoming and sustaining practices as a youth-centered organization.”
- Tools inside/needed:
- Organizational self-assessment tool to support power-sharing between young people and adults.
- Scorecard for how your organization
as it currently operates - Action template for prioritizing tangible goals and how to get there
Trauma-informed and healing-centered youth engagement:
- Purpose: To teach organizations how to help youth navigate through trauma
- Description: Designed for educators and other professionals engaging young people in sexual health programming, highlighting key concepts in trauma-informed and healing-centered engagement and offering opportunities for reflection on current youth engagement practices