The We Trust Youth Challenge has been accepted by 100+ donors and organizations!
Now what is next?
To help #WeTrustYouthChallenge acceptors make tangible progress in how they partner with young people, We Trust Youth will collaborate with other youth and youth focused-NGOs and donors to solve practical problems.​
How problems be tackled?
For iNGOs and donors, who currently often hold the most power and decision-making, We Trust Youth is co-hosting three practical problem solving workshops in partnership with Elevate Children's Funders Group and EngenderHealth.
To help others who have accepted the challenge or who want to improve their ability to equity partners with young people, We Trust Youth will be sharing lessons and recommendations through communications channels and public events. We will encourage exchange and contributions from many of you along the way.
What problems will be tackled?
We will focus on three fundamental problems that hurt our collective ability to improve young people’s lives. Under each fundamental problem, we will collectively tackle the practical questions that result.
Fundamental Problems: that often result from power imbalances and prejudice
Practical Questions: to answer to help tackle the fundamental problem
Those viewed as having “valuable skills” and “capacity” are often the least directly connected to young people or their communities.
-
How can donors / NGOs build their own capacity to effectively serve young people and youth-led efforts?
-
What do models of support that actually meet young people’s needs look like?
Decisions around who gets funded and what outcomes we’re all working towards are rarely determined jointly with young people, even less frequently led by young people.
-
How can boards and executive leadership be moved to invest in participatory approaches? And even shift their decision-making?
-
What does jointly defining programmatic success look like?
-
How can we assess the quality of partnerships and engagement with young people?
The way that money moves (typically donor to iNGOs to youth-led effort) often prevents collaboration and can even result in exploitation of young people.
-
How can young people help determine who should receive funds?
-
How can more funds be channeled directly to youth-led efforts?
-
How can intermediaries (often iNGOs) be selected or “behave” as more equitable partners and shift power?
-
How can you determine fair compensation for youth partners?