Case Studies

Sometimes, the best way to understand how youth leadership and development, youth-adult partnership, and youth and civic engagement strategies play out in the community building process is through concrete examples and stories – case studies, if you will.  Through these six case studies you become familiar with the individual communities, their problems, their strengths, and their tenacious will to change.  Perhaps you recognize elements of your own community in their stories; perhaps you find inspiration in their trials and success.  But regardless, read these short studies and become aware of the real, transformative power of youth engagement.

Read how Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) engaged their community to improve conditions for garment workers in factories; how residents on the Hopi Reservation founded the Pu’tavi organization as a way to preserve the culture and well being of the Hopi and empower its young people; how members of the Benton Harbor Boys & Girls Club led their community towards change by sponsoring and moderating a mayoral debate; how residents on the Lummi Reservation brought youth and adults together to preserve and celebrate their native traditions; how Healthy Communites Healthy Youth in Waupaca, Wisconsin engaged local young people with the community’s resources; and how Roca, a youth development organization in Chelsea, Massachusetts, works with local law enforcement officials to bring restorative justice to the community.