This self-reflection tool is designed to help organizations document, assess, and strengthen their youth engagement efforts. Specifically, it aims to promote thoughtful reflection on current practices and organizational capacity, identify strengths and opportunities for growth, align youth engagement strategies with organizational vision and goals, inform actionable next steps and resource needs, and support continuous learning and improvement.
Audience: This tool is intended for use by youth-serving organizations that partner with—or plan to partner with—youth to enact policy change. It is designed for organizations that 1) directly engage youth in policy efforts, 2) support and collaborate with other organizations that engage youth in policy efforts, and/or 3) seek to strengthen their capacity for meaningful and authentic youth engagement.
How to Use: This tool guides you through a structured process to assess your youth engagement efforts and identify areas for growth. The tool is divided into five sections that align with the Authentic Youth Engagement in Policy Framework (Framework). In these sections, you will be asked to identify and describe:
- The ways in which youth are engaged by your organization internally
- The ways in which youth are engaged by your organization in the policy process
- How your organization empowers and supports youth through various strategies
- How local factors help and/or hinder your youth engagement efforts
- The outcomes your organization has achieved, is working toward, and has prioritized related to your youth engagement efforts
For each section, we provide definitions and illustrative examples of the Framework in action, based on a study that applied the Framework to 32 organizations across the United States engaging youth in the policy process. This includes examples in the top row of each table to illustrate the types of content to include. At the end of each section, you will reflect on your responses within that section. At the conclusion of the tool, you will reflect on your overall youth engagement efforts, identifying priority areas to focus on next in strengthening your youth engagement efforts and the resources and supports needed to achieve your goals. At the end of the tool, you will also find blank pages to take additional notes as needed.
For organizations that have not yet engaged youth in the policy process, this tool can be used to develop your vision and goals for youth engagement and what authentic youth engagement would look like for your organization.
As you work through each section, remember that authentic youth engagement is dynamic and occurs along a continuum. Youth may engage in different roles and at different stages of the policy process over time, and these decisions should be driven by the roles they wish to play and the needs in your community. As such, the goal is not to check off each box, as each organization engages youth in different capacities and in different organizational and local contexts while working toward different goals. This tool is designed to help document progress, assess alignment with your vision, and identify pathways for growth through meaningful reflection, discussion, and planning to strengthen and sustain authentic youth engagement.
Suggested citation: Ball, J., McKlindon, A., Scott, A., & Holquist, S. (2026). Authentic youth engagement in policy self-reflection tool. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/2122f498q