Restless Development, with funding support from the Citi Foundation, is launching a new learning and practice community on meaningful youth engagement (MYE) for US organizations in the workforce development sector.
Apply to be one of up to eight organizations in the Meaningful Youth Engagement Lab! As a member of the Lab you will receive free training and personalized mentorship to improve your meaningful youth engagement practices starting this February, 2022. The Meaningful Youth Engagement Lab includes technical assistance support to guide your organization on how to meaningfully engage youth as well as paid professional leadership development opportunities for young staff. Come walk the talk with us!
About The MYE Lab
The Meaningful Youth Engagement Lab will bring together up to eight nonprofits with different levels of MYE experience and support them through assessment, training and action planning on organizational change processes strengthening their youth-centered engagement. Selected organizations will participate in 2-3 half day trainings on priority themes identified by your own organizational assessment, followed by tailored mentorship and technical assistance. As part of the Lab, you will have the opportunity to raise questions, problem solve, and share learnings with peer organizations and youth leaders while joining a supportive community to help keep you accountable to your organization’s MYE goals.
What is the Youth Task Team (YTT)?
Restless Development is committed to meaningfully engaging young people in all of our programming, including the leadership and design of the Meaningful Youth Engagement Lab. The Youth Task Team (YTT) is a youth-led body composed of younger staff from each partner organization who will help lead as experts of their own realities. The YTT will ensure MYE is practiced throughout the project design, implementation, and accountability, and be key agents in the design of assessments, trainings, and action planning. There will be an additional optional paid opportunity to publish (or co-publish) learnings from their experience at the end of the program to help communicate values, principles, and best practices in affecting change from a youth perspective.
Youth Task Team Compensation & Time Commitment: We anticipate an average commitment of 1-3 hours per month for nine months. Responsibilities will include one monthly meeting and some project work based on the partner organization’s unique goals. Youth Task Team members will be compensated $1,000.00 USD for their participation. They will also be eligible for an additional $300 gift card at the end of the program upon submission of a written article, blog, or creative media project about their organization’s MYE journey.
Partner Organization Time Commitment: We ask that your staff contribute to an internal survey and youth-led assessment on MYE. We also require the participation of at least 1-2 senior staff members or decision-makers alongside YTT members in training meetings. The Restless Development staff will be available for technical assistance calls, as needed/requested, for a period of five months following the trainings.
Eligibility
If you are a US non-profit in any aspect of workforce development involving youth interested in improving MYE, you are eligible to apply! Organizations are required to identify at least one willing young staff member or youth leader (18-30 years old) to participate as a Youth Task Team member.
Selection process
To ensure that the MYE Lab selection process is fair and equitable, Restless Development has set up an internal Steering Committee formed by adult and youth staff. The Steering Committee will review and select up to eight organizations based on the application process. Criteria for selection will include organizations that express enthusiasm for adopting MYE in their organizational structure, the availability of an internal candidate for the Youth Task Team, and organizations which are in the early to intermediate stages of integrating MYE.
Timeline
| December 2021 – January 2022 – Selection window of up to eight organizations. |
| Launch | February – MYE Lab Launch and orientation of selected organizations. |
| Self-Assessment | February – March | Youth Task Team leads assessment process at their organizations, with support from Restless Development to identify unique opportunities for action. |
| Training Design | March – April | Youth Task Team collectively shapes training, incorporating their assessment findings, ensuring their priorities are reflected. |
| Network Meetings & Trainings | April – August | All organizations gather for 2-3 collective trainings online, supported by YTTs, to co-create their MYE action plans. |
| Action & Accountability | July – November | Rolling out action plans with the support of monthly one-on-one’s, mentorship, technical assistance, and co-creating MYE resources. |
Apply Here!
The deadline to apply to the MYE Lab is January 15th, 2022 at 6 pm EST. Shortlisted organizations will have a follow-up phone call with the Steering Committee and selected organizations will be notified by the end of January 2022. The first MYE Lab meeting will be held as soon as possible. If you have any questions about the program or application process, reach out to us at Nafisa@restlessdevelopment.org .
