Centering Youth Voice Through Collective Advocacy
August 13, 2025
At MENTOR Nebraska, we believe that collaboration is key to creating lasting change. That belief led us to help launch the Youth Development Coalition —an initiative that brings mentoring and out-of-school time programs together to strengthen statewide advocacy and ensure youth voices are at the center of policy decisions. Shared interests, audiences, and programmatic goals in these two youth development sectors make this a natural, mutually-reinforcing partnership.
MENTOR Nebraska, in collaboration with Collective for Youth and Beyond School Bells — two leading backbone organizations in the out-of-school time space — began by finding alignment and identifying shared goals and priorities across organizations. This led to the foundational steps in the development of the coalition, including:
- Engaging in a joint contract with a trusted lobbyist group to investigate youth development policy opportunities in the state legislature.
- Convening more than 20 youth-serving organizations from across Nebraska to seek buy-in about the interest and capacity for the development of a coalition.
- Facilitating a relationship-mapping survey to better understand our existing connections with key decision-makers, especially those on the Education, Appropriations, Health & Human Services, and Judiciary Committees. The results helped us see the strength of our network and uncovered new opportunities for strategic, coordinated engagement with lawmakers.
To kick off our coalition-building efforts, I facilitated a visioning session to answer questions around what success looks like, what shared values should ground the coalition work, and potential challenges in the development and ongoing work of a coalition. This session created a foundation of transparency about the intent of the coalition. Subsequent monthly convenings focused on the creation of mission, vision, and values statements to guide the coalition work. The collective energy was incredible —there’s something powerful about bringing mission-aligned organizations together to co-create a vision that none of us could accomplish alone.
To move from vision to action, we began creating spaces for public dialogue and community engagement. One such example was a Community Conversation on the State of Youth Programming, a convening held in June, inviting local and state policymakers, nonprofit leaders, educators, funders, and—most importantly—young people. A panel of youth shared their lived experiences and offered thoughtful recommendations for how systems and programs can better support them. Their voices grounded the discussion in reality and reminded us why this work is so critical.
For other MENTOR Affiliates and youth-serving organizations across the country, here are a few takeaways from our journey:
- Start with shared purpose. A clear and unified goal builds trust and sets the foundation for collective action.
- Leverage collective relationships. You likely already have valuable connections—identify them, map them out, and use them to open doors.
- Center youth voice early and often. Young people should be active participants in the process—not just as storytellers, but as leaders and co-creators.
- Create space for honest dialogue. Policy change is a long game, and it starts by building relationships—not only with legislators but also with one another.
As we celebrate Advocacy August, I encourage every youth-serving organization to explore opportunities to convene, collaborate, and co-lead. When we align across organizations, systems, and sectors, we’re not just advocating for young people—we’re advocating with them.
Together, we can build a future where every young person has the support, opportunities, and voice they deserve.
