The Youth Academy Café: Gaining the Voices and Perspectives of Youth through Conversation

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to gain the voices of youth and to help community leaders from youth service organizations developing an understanding of the concerns and issues facing young people in today’s ever changing society. Youth voices are a valuable resource for community agencies who serve the population. Through implementing the World Café methodology, an environment was constructed to create meaningful conversation in a comfortable, mutually respectful and engaging environment. This qualitative study recruited 43 individuals (14 males and 29 females, age: 14 - 18) to discuss the following seven questions: 1) Can you discuss the ways you think the community can enhance the empowerment of youth? 2) How can we help young people live a life of meaning? 3) What do you see as a barrier or obstacle in reaching your post high school goals and how can we help? 4) In what ways do you think social media can be employed to understand the issues and concerns of youth? 5) What specific concerns in our community do young people face? What can we do to help you handle these concerns? 6) What do you think the community can do to enhance your wellbeing? And 7) What can the community do to assist young people in finding employment? Ultimately, the findings urge that program planners, government officials and policy makers as well as the citizenry, should continuously provide a respectful, meaningful and professional platform for youths to contribute their voice. As youth leaders, the sense of responsibly to appropriately lead young people should not minimize the importance of providing that sense of place to the youth. The five major themes that have emerged include: 1) empowerment and the need for expression; 2) the importance of living a meaningful life; 3) improving ways of knowing and awareness of opportunities; 4) lack of a gathering places; 5) the impact of social media; and 6) need to promote wellness. Conclusion and implications are discussed.