Adults often say that children are our future, but still have a lot of our own opinions about what that future should look like. Politicians run campaigns about how they will help younger generations. Companies opine about how to best engage with Gen Z or Gen Alpha in LinkedIn posts and white papers. Whole nonprofits are formed because of ideas to help youth with programming and services. But what’s often missing from these conversations and initiatives is the voices of young people themselves—and even more conspicuously absent are the voices of young people of color.
Most of us remember what it’s like to have adults make assumptions about us, what we believed, and, even worse, what we could accomplish. In elementary school, I had a teacher who called me—a Black male student—an “endangered species” because he expected me to become a high school dropout.
Even today, with a career in leading a nonprofit organization, I still remember that teacher who believed I wouldn’t succeed. I never heard him say such a thing to a white student, but I am grateful for the unintentional lesson he taught me: adults in positions of power are not always those with the most valuable perspectives. Instead, great leaders have a more inclusive understanding of whose perspectives matter and who should have a seat at the table, and that includes extending opportunities to young people of color who are otherwise marginalized every day.
At the Steve Fund, a nonprofit that supports the mental health and well-being of young people of color, we hope to not only create programming for youth, but rather with youth. We do this by involving young people from the beginning as part of our Youth Ambassador Board. They help us understand the mental health challenges they are facing, and what solutions actually work for them. Young people of color face unique challenges in our society that can result in unique harm to their well-being, so without their perspectives, we would not be able to operate optimally. As a result of their inclusion, we have a more effective organization that reaches more young people—and those who advise us see that they can be leaders right now.
Children of color make up slightly more than half of children in the United States, so their insights should be included when organizations develop their priorities and strategies. To do this effectively, leaders should start by auditing how they currently engage with young people of color. Does your organization’s governance structure include diverse youth voices from the onset or just as an afterthought?
One way to examine how you engage with young people is to do a deep dive into your organization’s content. Does this content take into account the context of young adults’ experiences—and, in particular, the experience of young people of color? We may be experts in our respective fields, but if young people are the ultimate beneficiaries of our work, their opinions must be reflected in the concepts, designs, and content we create for them. The Steve Fund does this by centering the youth we serve in our approach to the programs and initiatives we deliver.
If you find that your organization is missing the context and leadership that young people of color could provide, explore forming a youth council or inviting a youth member to permanently serve on your board. This not only offers young people valuable opportunities to develop leadership skills, but it also shows them you treasure their expertise. Consider paying them for their time, as you would any other consultant. You could even explore a co-model, in which every leadership position in your company has a youth co-leader who helps represent the important voice of young people across all racial demographics.
When working with young people of color, remember the lesson that I learned from my old teacher: the opinions of people in power are not the only ones that matter. Let’s let the diverse youth of America create a future, not just inherit it, by giving them more than a folding chair at the table. Let’s give them the permanent seat they deserve and show, by our actions, that we value their opinions, feelings, and leadership abilities.
David McGhee is the CEO of The Steve Fund.
