Executive Summary
Young people are coming of age amid profound changes in how they experience community, institutions, democracy, work, and civic life. For libraries seeking to engage young people meaningfully, the challenge is not simply developing better programs. It begins with understanding how young people see themselves, what they care about, where they find belonging, how they are already taking action, and what they need from institutions seeking to work alongside them.
From Participation to Power is a two-part webinar series that moves deliberately from understanding to practice.
Youth & Young Adult Civic Engagement: See Differently
Tuesday, October 20 at 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Webinar 1: See Differently brings perspectives from outside the library field into conversation with library practitioners. Speakers will explore what they are seeing among young people today, what is and isn't working in current approaches to civic engagement, and what meaningful youth and young adult civic participation could look like in a thriving democracy. A librarian will respond to these perspectives and consider what they raise for the library field.
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Youth & Young Adult Civic Engagement: Work Differently
Thursday, November 19 at 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Webinar 2: Work Differently turns those insights toward library practice. Three library systems participating in ULC's Civic Makers Lab program will explore how they are translating similar questions into programs and experiments with young people, including where they are succeeding, what they are learning, and what remains challenging.
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Together, the sessions ask participants to move beyond the question “How do we get young people to participate?” toward a more consequential one: “How can libraries help young people develop the agency, relationships, skills, resources, and opportunities to shape their communities?”
After attending both sessions, participants should leave with a more nuanced understanding of young people's civic lives today; a clearer picture of the conditions that support meaningful youth civic engagement; practical examples of how libraries are experimenting with these ideas; and a framework for examining where their own library might move from simply providing opportunities for young people toward creating and supporting opportunities with and by them.