Civic Youth Work Primer

Apparent political apathy among youth in the United States has led to a moral panic about the future of democracy. Many researchers question the facts, while others seek to engage and mobilize young people around public issues they care about in order to master the citizen role and to bring social change. Civic youth work has its modern roots in this work. Its guiding ethos is authentic, meaningful, just, inclusive, and consequential youth involvement in everyday civic life through a small-group process, with the goal of supporting citizenship for young people as a life-long practice.
Using their U.S. and international experience, the authors discuss civic youth work touchstones, promising practices, and activities. The text expands earlier notions of youth engagement by grounding them to a conception of the lived-citizen. A substantive bibliography lists the sources on the subject of civic youth work and provides links to scholarly work for researchers and practitioners to effectively support youth involvement in community, social, and political development.

Ross VeLure Roholt is Associate Professor of Youth Studies in the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota. He has written extensively on civic youth work in both the U.S. and internationally; completing several books and articles along with training guides and practice handbooks. He consults internationally with governments and community organizations on youth involvement in political, social, democratic, and community development.
Michael Baizerman is Professor of Youth Studies in the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota. He is a leading scholar in the fields of youth studies and youth work. He has published over sixty articles and books and consults internationally with governments, universities, and community organizations to build effective and sustainable youth work practice and programs to support young people’s involvement in political, social, democratic, and community development.