By Reid Pinckard, UT Austin PhD Student in American Studies
Since I was a senior in high school I have been involved in the violence prevention movement. Beginning this work as an unpaid legal intern at a local crisis center in rural East Texas to having worked with several national organizations in paid roles, I have learned why my voice as a young person is not only important, but a vital part to this movement.
In hopes of shedding more light on this experience for myself and other young organizers I share spaces with, I find it important to point out the good and the bad of this work. Not only to provide a jumping off point for advocates looking to improve youth involvement, but for other young organizers to feel validated in some of the experiences they might be having right now.
The positive experiences I have had in the violence prevention space include having the opportunity to embrace the necessary education that I missed out on as a young person in the rural south and disseminating this education while learning how to make difficult concepts more accessible to my peers and the people that implement these educational materials that are crucial for prevention.
Unfortunately, the spaces where much of this work occurs can also be dysfunctional. Many nonprofits will exploit young people for their labor by upholding dated expectations that any experience in the field is equivalent to compensation for one's work. This can make the work inhospitable for young people that rely on their own income to live, and this exploitation can also rehash the violent experiences young survivors come into this work with. This is not inherently the fault of advocates, but it showcases a deeper issue in the violence prevention movement that lies on the backs of survivors to address violence.
Despite the negative impacts this work can have on young people, it is important now more than ever to make the spaces where this work is happening more hospitable for youth organizers.
The inclusion of young people in violence prevention work emphasizes a focus on prevention that looks at the root cause of violence, expands understanding of violence across demographics, and prepares future generations to continue this work. Advocates can emphasize youth involvement in their own organizations by providing meaningful spaces for young people to not only engage with, but lead this work in the ways that are meaningful to them and their communities.
Young People’s Experiences of Violence
Youth stories and action have led and shaped movements for decades. Looking at work such as the young crusaders of the Civil Rights movement showcases how young voices have become a vital tool at not only preventing violence but understanding where the occurrence of violence in our culture comes from. We can also look at research published by the American Journal of Public Health that tells us that “violence is a leading cause of death for youths aged 10 to 24 years in the United States.”
The same article referenced above makes a brilliant point in saying “when we recognize violence against our communities as a form of violence against youths, we are better able to understand the link between structural and interpersonal violence.”
Young people are conditioned by their environments as they age through socializing agents, which I will delve deeper in the next section of this article. To truly understand how different forms of violence come to fruition in different communities, we must rely on the experiences of young people to tell us how we all can actively address violence on a micro and macro level.
This intimate look at young experiences by not only allowing youth to grapple with the development of their own voice but having them help create solutions for violence in their communities provides a better roadmap for policies, programs, and education. To see this in action, advocates must create accessible opportunities for involvement. This will allow us all to better understand how to address root causes of violence as the world continues to change.
Influencing Socializing Agents
As I stated previously, the creation of our selves, how we respond to violence, and how we make decisions about our lives is due to the socializing agents we experience growing up. Socializing agents are any outside influences that impact your values, these can also be perception because it impacts the lived experiences you have.
Think about the socializing agents in your own life. These can be things like the church you attend, the backgrounds that you hold, what type of school you went to, and any other experiences that stem from the communities you take part in.
Through the involvement of young people in this movement, advocates are better able to pinpoint what socializing agents might be linked to rising rates of violence within young communities and in the community at large. This is because young people are experiencing these agents at critical points in their lives. By providing the youth with the tools that have helped advocates break generational patterns of violence in their own lives, there becomes the opportunity to stop violence before it occurs and change systems at its core.
This approach also provides insight into how violence unfolds in communities that are largely left out of movement conversations, which increases our knowledge of violence across demographics through the work of young people.
Making Space for Young People to Lead
In Marguerite Barnett’s book Public Policy for the Black Community: Strategies and Perspectives, she defines the term “benign neglect” which rests on two assumptions. One, prior programs for the advancement of Black communities (i.e., federal programs) have been unsuccessful and therefore public attention and funds were “wasted.” Second, the problems of Black people, both political and economic, have been alleviated. These assumptions result in the institutional expectation that, if left alone, Black people will progress as other populations have.
We can take the term “benign neglect” and the assumptions it rests on and apply that to the violence prevention movement at large, especially when it comes to young people. Often young people, and any other community that exists outside of what the system defines as “normal,” are left to catch up. To fight this, advocates must create meaningful spaces for young people to create change and for them to learn how change occurs.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts invests a lot of their resources in the development of young people leading change in the civic engagement space. Through this work they have found that “young people who engage in activism and service experience personal growth, expand their networks, often receive mentoring, and can enjoy opportunities to expand their impact by participating in broader political and community leadership.”
This benefit directly fights the impacts of benign neglect that results in the exclusion of young voices.
New generations have demonstrated a clear want to lead the way for change, but the spaces where change happens can be consumed by disillusionment. What I mean by this, is that the intention of creating spaces for young people is not always genuine. It often can verge into a negative performance of including people rather than the space being meant for real work that directly targets violence.
What meaningful spaces for change can look like comes down to how young people make the space for themselves. This can look like the creation of a Youth Advisory Board that allows young people to create their own goals centered around the work your organization is already doing. You can provide more specific opportunities for young people to be involved in, while allowing them to interpret the task in a way that makes it more impactful for young individuals.
In all of this, it is important for advocates to make certain that the young people aiding in your work are compensated fairly, allowed to truly lead the projects you have hired them for, and provide an opportunity for them to explore this space and all it has to offer.
By including young people, advocates have the capacity to teach them organizing strategies that will prevent violence, and they gain the opportunity to learn from young people on what does and doesn’t work as the violence prevention space continues to change.
