Youth Empowerment and Civic Engagement

What is civic engagement? Why do some heed its call, while others shrug their shoulders and change the subject? How do youth who are involved in their communities evaluate their contributions? How do adults view their efforts? What results can programs that seek to engage and empower youth show? How can researchers and evaluators measure these outcomes and their meanings for the youth, for adults, for their communities, and for society?

This course will explore questions such as these, starting from the premise that youth civic participation is not just important, but imperative in a democracy. We will examine current research and theory about youth civic engagement, and we will test the assumptions, conclusions, and implications of these pieces by relating them to a particular youth empowerment program, sponsored by the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford. In its current sites in Redwood City and West Oakland, Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning (YELL) trains youth to research and reform their schools and their communities. Through weekly service to this program, you will come to learn from the youth about the issues they face and about how they see themselves in relation to these concerns. The perspectives of these middle and high school students will lie at the heart of this course.