Contrary to what we sometimes hear in the news, young people are ready and eager to make a positive difference in their communities. They want to use their voices and ideas in meaningful ways to make change. At this especially fragile moment in our country’s history, it’s incumbent on all adults to make sure young people have these opportunities. Youth-friendly child impact statements have proven they do exactly that.
Young People Want to Use Their Voices to Make Meaningful Change
A recent Harris poll, commissioned by UNICEF USA, found young people believe their leaders do not understand their main concerns. Even so, the vast majority of youth—90 percent—want to be more involved and have concrete ideas for what would help: They want leaders to make a real effort to understand their views, to prioritize issues that matter most to them, and to include their views in developing solutions.
Besides it being the right thing, there’s another reason to answer this call from young people. Children and youth today live with troubling realities: unsafe schools, unhealthy social media, climate realities threatening life as they know it, and widespread mental health challenges, too often unaddressed. Policymakers, though often well intentioned in addressing these problems, can miss the mark and waste limited public resources. Their own lived experience makes youth themselves the experts in how best to take on these challenges successfully. So we all benefit from hearing their ideas and acting on them.
Youth Have Embraced Youth-Friendly Impact Statements
A child & youth impact statement is an analytic and data tool that summarizes the potential effects on children’s well-being of any proposed or existing law, policy, program, or practice. Kids Impact Initiative, with partners, has piloted their use to see whether they can help policymakers make decisions that are in children’s best interests. We found that young people understood their value and wanted to conduct impact assessments themselves.
In Fresno, California, high school students used an impact assessment to understand the very limited exposure students at their school had to technology skills and jobs. They then made recommendations to the school principal for increasing this exposure.
Students in a metro area north of Denver helped pass a property tax measure to fund their underserved school district using the findings from an impact assessment of the measure.
Building on these successes, Kids Impact Initiative and UNICEF USA explored whether equipping young people to do their own impact statements was viable and whether their experience was positive.
Testing Out Youth-Friendly Child Impact Statement Toolkit
We worked with youth to design an 8- to 10-week curriculum where young people focus on a policy concern, produce a child impact statement, and develop a plan to promote the changes they want to see. The curriculum to complete an impact statement was developed by youth and then tested by eight UNICEF Clubs in diverse states across the U.S.
These pilot clubs used the Child Impact Statement Toolkit to boost their advocacy at various stages—from simply exploring an issue to raising awareness to mobilizing for change. One group used it to understand the impacts on students of proposed legislation to restrict social media use for children; another identified ways to reduce the barriers facing high school students who were the first in their families to go to college; and another focused on a state budget proposal prohibiting public schools from teaching about racial and gender inequality.
Feedback from the clubs showed that young people learned valuable leadership, teamwork, and research skills. They also experienced how to use their voice to make change in their local communities. The clubs in the pilot helped us tweak the Toolkit so it would be most effective for other youth groups to use.
Contents of the Youth-Friendly Child Impact Statement Toolkit
The updated Toolkit guides youth to complete the following steps: select an issue the group cares about; answer the seven child impact questions on a relevant program or proposal affecting their community; develop an advocacy plan; and create a presentation of their findings and recommendations for relevant decision-makers. At the end, they can post their “credentials” on social media, including LinkedIn, to show off their hard work and inspire others.
The Toolkit also includes ready-to-use templates, examples, and all other needed tools and resources.
Moving Forward
At a time when so many youth feel disconnected from their local communities, we hope using the Toolkit will remind them how urgently policymakers need their fresh ideas to improve day-to-day life for kids and families.
Please let interested colleagues and youth groups know about this curriculum for completing youth-led child impact statements. If you’d like to be part of a nationwide Learning Community of youth groups using this Toolkit, please reach out to us for further information (at info@kidsimpact.org).
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Contrary to what we sometimes hear in the news, young people are ready and eager to make a positive difference in their communities. They want to use their voices and ideas in meaningful ways to make change. At this especially fragile moment in our country’s history, it’s incumbent on all adults to make sure young people have these opportunities. Youth-friendly child impact statements have proven they do exactly that.
Young People Want to Use Their Voices to Make Meaningful Change
A recent Harris poll, commissioned by UNICEF USA, found young people believe their leaders do not understand their main concerns. Even so, the vast majority of youth—90 percent—want to be more involved and have concrete ideas for what would help: They want leaders to make a real effort to understand their views, to prioritize issues that matter most to them, and to include their views in developing solutions.
Besides it being the right thing, there’s another reason to answer this call from young people. Children and youth today live with troubling realities: unsafe schools, unhealthy social media, climate realities threatening life as they know it, and widespread mental health challenges, too often unaddressed. Policymakers, though often well intentioned in addressing these problems, can miss the mark and waste limited public resources. Their own lived experience makes youth themselves the experts in how best to take on these challenges successfully. So we all benefit from hearing their ideas and acting on them.
Youth Have Embraced Youth-Friendly Impact Statements
In Fresno, California, high school students used an impact assessment to understand the very limited exposure students at their school had to technology skills and jobs. They then made recommendations to the school principal for increasing this exposure.
Students in a metro area north of Denver helped pass a property tax measure to fund their underserved school district using the findings from an impact assessment of the measure.
Building on these successes, Kids Impact Initiative and UNICEF USA explored whether equipping young people to do their own impact statements was viable and whether their experience was positive.
Testing Out Youth-Friendly Child Impact Statement Toolkit
We worked with youth to design an 8- to 10-week curriculum where young people focus on a policy concern, produce a child impact statement, and develop a plan to promote the changes they want to see. The curriculum to complete an impact statement was developed by youth and then tested by eight UNICEF Clubs in diverse states across the U.S.
These pilot clubs used the Child Impact Statement Toolkit to boost their advocacy at various stages—from simply exploring an issue to raising awareness to mobilizing for change. One group used it to understand the impacts on students of proposed legislation to restrict social media use for children; another identified ways to reduce the barriers facing high school students who were the first in their families to go to college; and another focused on a state budget proposal prohibiting public schools from teaching about racial and gender inequality.
Feedback from the clubs showed that young people learned valuable leadership, teamwork, and research skills. They also experienced how to use their voice to make change in their local communities. The clubs in the pilot helped us tweak the Toolkit so it would be most effective for other youth groups to use.
Contents of the Youth-Friendly Child Impact Statement Toolkit
The Toolkit also includes ready-to-use templates, examples, and all other needed tools and resources.
Moving Forward
At a time when so many youth feel disconnected from their local communities, we hope using the Toolkit will remind them how urgently policymakers need their fresh ideas to improve day-to-day life for kids and families.
Please let interested colleagues and youth groups know about this curriculum for completing youth-led child impact statements. If you’d like to be part of a nationwide Learning Community of youth groups using this Toolkit, please reach out to us for further information (at info@kidsimpact.org).
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