Lessons from Youth Voices: The Power of Safe Spaces and Small Groups
March 1, 2023
We launched YouthVoices.org in partnership with Accenture, Cortico, and the MIT Center for Constructive Communication in April 2022. Youth Voices surfaces firsthand experiences from JA alumni around the world. Originally formed to include alumni and youth perspectives in our new strategic plan, the project continues in 2023 to amplify and share a powerful message about JA’s values and direction, as well as the role JA programs have played in alumni’s lives. As we listened to our alumni, we learned quite a few things, too.
How It Works
In groups of three to four, participants discussed their JA experiences, their feelings about the world, and more with a JA alumnus facilitator. The sensemaking team at Cortico and the MIT Center for Constructive Communication then analyzed the more than 50 hours of conversations and thematically organized the stories and experiences shared.
YouthVoices.org allows the public to explore and listen to these recordings. Organized by theme and by region on the website, users can navigate through conversations about self-efficacy, impact, learning experiences, thriving communities, youth empowerment, and values.
In addition to the short-term goal of helping form JA Worldwide’s strategic plan, the project has long-term goals:
Measure the qualitative impact of JA and JA alumni communities
Include JA youth as key stakeholders in JA Worldwide’s decision-making processes
Create and build a youth-impact community and provide a platform to share youth voices
Establish a repository of JA alumni stories from around the world showcasing impact and successes
What We Learned
Young people always have unique wisdom to share thanks to their different perspectives. But through the process, we learned even more than we expected.
Small-group engagement: “We know people are tired of Zoom calls,” said Sarah Rapp, JA Worldwide’s Director, Alumni and People Engagement. “But because we had these small, intimate groups, people were very engaged. They weren’t sitting in a boring presentation; they were part of a true conversation. Everyone was allowed to speak and everyone felt they were heard thanks to the small group size. Participants knew they were part of something bigger than just another Zoom call.”
Safe spaces: Youth Voices conversations functioned as peer-to-peer engagements because they were facilitated by JA alumni, creating a safe space for participants to openly express themselves in a way they might not have had in the past. “Participants knew they could express their feelings—positive or negative—however they wanted,” Sarah said. “In this fast, social media-focused world where everyone is talking, introverted people often aren’t heard. We created a safe space for open expression, where everyone was heard, even those who don’t often speak up.”
Qualitative approach: Youth Voices shows the impact of JA in a different way. It doesn’t look at numbers (quantitative). Rather, it reflects the alumni experience. Youth Voices tells the full story and imparts the full impact of each alumnus’s JA experience.
Peer conversations: Some Youth Voices participants had never met another person from across the globe or even from another country. The experience enabled bonding and global community creation. Youth Voices brought people together who might never had met otherwise. “They were able to meet likeminded people from other parts of the world,” Sarah said. “Now that they’ve met each other, many of our Youth Voices participants feel more empowered to speak up in other areas of life. Seeing these higher levels of confidence in certain individuals has been inspiring.”
Check out YouthVoices.org, and join Sarah every Tuesday on our Instagram (@jaworldwide) for JA Live, where she’ll speak with Youth Voices participants from around the world.