Today, October 20, is National Youth Confidence Day. It’s a day to celebrate youth and encourage young people to believe in themselves and build their confidence. As a company that believes in and supports community building, Capital Strategic Solutions offers that one of the ways young people can grow their confidence is to get involved in the community.
Helping develop an interest in their community and encouraging our youth to express their opinions, share their ideas and get engaged in community activities can build confidence. And the byproducts of civic involvement and encouraging civic responsibility by youth can have a positive outcome for communities.
It’s no secret that many municipal offices, departments and organizations have been experiencing staffing shortages after many career professionals retired during the pandemic. The future of municipal work and community building hinges on the interest and involvement of young people.
So, how do you go about engaging youth in community and government?
Youth involvement can take many different forms. Whether it’s career days, job shadowing, internship opportunities for high school and college students or providing youth positions on local committees, opportunity and encouragement both need to be factors.
Opportunities to engage with students and young professionals include:
- Career fairs
- Job shadow days
- Summer and part-time internships
- Youth-directed social media programs
- Persistent outreach to youth organizations
- The creation of youth representatives on boards and committees
- Partnerships with local schools
- Department event days
It can be hard to know where to begin, but our experience in community outreach has given us a substantial toolbox for reaching specific demographics in your community. When it comes to outreach it can feel like you’re starting from scratch but it’s important to remember that the webs of networks likely already exist, and you just need to integrate yourself with them. With youth involvement in particular, local schools, clubs, and after school organizations are a great way to start building your engagement with young people in your community. Reaching out to these organizations frequently, and with substantial actionable items is the best way to get your youth involvement projects off the ground.
The benefits of these efforts will pay off. Building multiple systems for youth engagement also ensures a steady flow of young people who have a greater understanding of the career opportunities in public service and will bring your department and your field to the forefront of a young professional’s choices when they are looking to begin a career.
Above all else, when our youth are confident and our communities have invested in building that confidence, we have a created a tradition that will have lasting, positive impacts on our youth and our communities.