This learning module is part 3 of How to Host an Authentic Youth Listening Session.

6 Key Components: Barriers and Tips

Let us examine the key components of hosting an Authentic Youth Listening Session and common barriers that often prevent service providers from fully engaging in Authentic Youth Listening Sessions. In addition to naming the barriers to achieving the key components we also present tips for ways to overcome those barriers in ways that authentically engage YYAs.

Addressing barriers that may arise in a Listening Session and how to course correct/acknowledge them:

1. Compensation

Barriers: Organizations may struggle to provide compensation due to limited funding or adultist attitudes that frame young people’s engagement as a learning, volunteer, or internship opportunity rather than a form of emotional and intellectual labor. In addition to funding barriers for organizations, some young people may also be receiving state benefits that limit the types of compensation they can receive without negatively impacting their benefits.

Tips for Authentic Youth Engagement: Young people should be compensated equitably for their time involved in Listening Sessions in ways that meet their needs. Young people may be taking time out of their busy days or time off work to attend a Listening Session. As a result, young people involved in Listening Sessions should be provided with monetary payment. While providing food, restaurant vouchers, and gifts are always appreciated, they are not a form of adequate or equitable payment. These do not empower youth to make financial decisions.

For accessibility purposes, provide multiple methods of payment. For example, service providers could let YYAs choose to be compensated through money-sharing apps (e.g., PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, etc.), providing cash payments, or gift cards. Some forms of payment, such as gift cards, may be preferred by young people. Gift Cards should ideally be given as a prepaid credit card (such as VISA or Greendot) so young people can access what they need, as not all YYAs have access to certain stores.

2. Accessibility

Barriers: Hosting a Listening Session is not as simple as setting up a Zoom meeting or an office space. Young people may struggle to attend Listening Sessions due to the inaccessibility of the physical location or, if virtual, lack of access to the internet. There are a lot of YYA voices that are regularly left out of important discussions because they live in transportation or internet deserts. They may also struggle to be engaged depending on the time of day of the event due to balancing work and personal time demands such as needing time off work, childcare needs, or language and communication barriers.

Tips for Authentic Youth Engagement: To improve access to Listening Sessions, offer multiple opportunities for engagement. This can look like hosting in-person and virtual Listening Sessions or a hybrid Listening Session. When hosting a hybrid Listening Session, it is important to remind participants to use the provided microphone so individuals attending virtually can hear those attending in person.

Some YYAs are virtual learners and need to process information through hands-on activities. One way to improve accessibility for these YYAs would be to include hands-on activities that are tied to a question prompt or reflection that allows participants to process their thoughts and express them in an artistic way before sharing them with the group. Some examples of artistic expressive activities are sand trays, painting, drawing, or writing.

To ensure young people who are attending virtually are not spoken over, let young people know they can use the hand raise feature on platforms like Zoom or have them indicate when they want to talk in the chat. It is also important to provide avenues for YYAs who are not able to participate (due to work or school conflicts, transportation, or verbal communication barriers) an avenue for sharing their feedback.

YYAs who are unable to attend the Listening Session can still participate through virtual avenues, such as Google Forms that ask some of the same questions featured in the Listening Session. Consider partnering with local organizations to provide bus passes or hotspots for YYAs facing transportation or internet access barriers.

3. Power Dynamics

Barriers: Listening Sessions are a space where young people are asked to be vulnerable and share individual experiences with people they often do not know or may not trust. When the people facilitating the Listening Session do not share many of the same identities as participants, young people may feel distrustful or unsure if they will be understood or taken seriously.

Young people participating in Listening Sessions may have extensive histories of exploitative/negative experiences with older adults in various systems. The experiences of YYAs in various systems like child welfare, criminal justice and mental health often involve older adults either collecting data or extracting information from them. When data is collected, it means that information is being gathered from YYAs, possibly without their full understanding or consent. This data might be used in ways that negatively affect the lives of YYAs.

On the other hand, data extracting refers to retrieving specific information or details from the collected data. In these situations, YYAs may feel hesitant to share openly due to trust, fearing potential consequences like being reported or losing access to necessary services.

Tips for Authentic Youth Engagement: To mitigate these harmful power dynamics, when possible, have facilitators also be people with lived experience. Ensure that information collected will be de-identified if shared publicly unless a young person explicitly consents to sharing personal quotes.

Additionally, be upfront and transparent about how information will be collected and shared and allow YYAs the agency to disengage from sharing information they may not be comfortable with. Begin by setting ground rules within the space surrounding confidentiality. Let young people know that disclosures of lived experience with violence, substance abuse, or trafficking will not trigger non-consensual intervention from outside systems.

If facilitators are mandated reporters, share that information early and be transparent about the process of mandated reporting. Transparency and clear expectations allow YYAs who have rarely experienced agency within systems to decide when and how to engage within the Listening Session.

4. Adultism

Barriers: Adultism manifests when older adults believe they know more or better than YYAs. Within a Listening Session, some youth may feel unsure if they can speak freely due to adultism. As they step into a professional setting with individuals who may currently be offering certain supportive services, this could lead youth to speak in a filtered manner. The need to filter or moderate your language or behaviors due to a real or perceived power imbalance is called code-switching.

Additionally, when facilitators react to the stories being shared by YYAs with adultist responses or react in ways that make YYAs feel silenced or unimportant, it drastically reduces the authenticity of the Listening Session.

Tips for Authentic Youth Engagement: A YYA should not need to code-switch or change who they are. They are equals and their expertise is invaluable in this field, they deserve equitable spaces. Having a set understanding of ground rules and establishing confidentiality within these spaces is crucial.

Additionally, facilitators and staff collaborators should be trained in Adultism and Positive Youth Development to ensure healthy interactions. Recognize YYAs for their contribution to the work and give them credit for the expertise they contribute. Remind facilitators that they are there to participate in and guide the conversation without passing judgment on any participants.

5. Tokenization

Barriers: Listening Sessions can be spaces for a diverse group of participants to come together and share thoughts and ideas around shared experiences, such as homelessness or foster care. However, it is important to remember that Listening Session participants are only speaking to their experiences, not the experiences of everyone who shares their same or similar identities. Sometimes YYAs are given opportunities because of a token aspect of their identity. This is not acceptable, nor should it be something YYAs should expect. If an opportunity is not offered in good faith, and the YYA is being used for personal gain, in the long term, those YYAs will face significant challenges accessing support. Being used in any situation can cause a person to have self-doubt, even if they have accomplished so much. Imposter syndrome is high for YYAs.

Tips for Authentic Youth Engagement: If you notice all participants share the same racial, gender, sexual, ethnic, or disability identities, ask who is being left out and why, then course correct by doing targeted outreach to populations that may be left out of your Listening Sessions.

As providers have access to a variety of opportunities, YYAs should not have to struggle to attain them or feel like they need to change who they are to gain access. It should not be a game or battle amongst YYAs for who is a better fit if a provider offers regular and varied opportunities and resources. Opportunities should be equitably shared as everyone has unique needs and capabilities. If you notice the same YYAs getting chosen to participate repeatedly, look at your processes and the opportunities you are providing and consider how you might expand the opportunities available to a broader network of YYAs.

Having YYAs working alongside you and authentically collaborating with them can promote confidence. Creating a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) generates a space to share what is happening and address issues about which you may not know. A YAB is a board or council of YYAs from your community, often with lived expertise, which helps programs assess services, policies, and documents while identifying solutions for barriers the program and YYAs are facing. One effective strategy for striving for authentic collaboration is blending your Board of Directors and YAB meetings quarterly so the two groups can compare issues and strengths they see and identify similarities.

6. Length of Engagement

Barriers: Young people who have been system-involved or have experienced homelessness are often used to relationships being temporary, non-sustained, and transactional. These kinds of transactional relationships can reproduce harm and distrust in systems. Listening Sessions are, by nature, often short-term engagements and can contribute to the feelings of lacking long-term, meaningful relationships and engagements.

Tips for authentic youth collaboration: To mitigate this kind of harm in a Listening Session environment, provide opportunities for continued engagement or follow-up. Let young people know what will be done with their responses and provide them with email follow-up of any research or data published based on their responses. Additionally, if your organization is hiring, let young people know there are other ways they can remain engaged in the work, such as applying for jobs at your organization or working as paid consultants on other projects.