Youth Leadership
We know real change is driven by young people. Their lived experiences, courage, and innovative approaches to creating policies and practices are what we need today. It’s on us to live into our vision of equipping youth to thrive in school, work and life. We must center young people in everything we do. To achieve this thriving OST ecosystem, we must empower youth to shape their own OST experiences.
Youth leadership plays a critical role in creating high quality OST spaces. We know that youth voice and leadership must be integrated into the program (see Youth Engagement in the pyramid for program quality), and into our organizations (see youth voice in governance).
MASP offers training throughout the year to support the OST sector in authenticating creating spaces of identity, belonging, and agency for youth to exercise their voices and leadership skills.
With Youth For Youth (WYFY)
The Michigan Afterschool Partnership (MASP) received a grant to partner with Youthprise and Every Hour Counts to implement the With Youth For Youth (WYFY) initiative. MASP recruited youth from the seven-county region in southeast Michigan and is modeled after Powered By Youth and Generator z. Youth participate in training so that they can build pathways and mechanism to incorporate youth voice into the SE Michigan out-of-school time (OST) system. In addition, youth will participate in training and support youth-directed giving processes and practices which will ultimately lead to a series of youth lead grantmaking within their communities.
Applications are currently closed but will reopen in early Fall with limited space.
Youth Advisory Council (YAC)
The Michigan Afterschool Partnership (MASP) Youth Advisory Council (YAC) is a leadership development program comprised of 12, 14-19 aged, outstanding youth from across the state. These youth are selected to contribute to and inform MASP about internal policies and practices, while serving as ambassadors and leaders in their communities.
The Youth Advisory Council is MASP's internal strategy for achieving organizational values. MASP intentionally designed the YAC to serve as a model for our youth-driven value. We are actively challenging the structural forces that keep young people out of positions of leadership in our sector. Creating environments where youth are heard, seen, and valued. Utilizing the IBA framework (our data) to model thriving spaces for youth and adults to accelerate change. As a result, youth in the sector have a place to advocate and affirm the spaces they need for healing and growth.
Applications are currently closed but will reopen in early Fall.