Messaging Strategies to Encourage Investment in Young People

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When:
February 26, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
2025-02-26T13:00:00-06:00
2025-02-26T14:00:00-06:00
Advocacy Annie E Casey Foundation Data Family Mentors Parents Schools Webinar Youth youth programs
Messaging Strategies to Encourage Investment in Young People

Youth advo­cates, ser­vice providers and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers: Are you frus­trat­ed by the neg­a­tive nar­ra­tives about young peo­ple? Thriv­ing Youth: Mes­sag­ing Strate­gies to Encour­age a Brighter Future for Young Peo­ple, an upcom­ing webi­nar host­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, offers guid­ance on how to lever­age data and mes­sag­ing to com­pose pos­i­tive, asset-framed nar­ra­tives about young peo­ple. Recent research com­mis­sioned by the Foun­da­tion shows that the pub­lic remains inclined to sup­port youth devel­op­ment, includ­ing many pre­ven­ta­tive inter­ven­tions. Data indi­cate that pos­i­tive and warm par­ent-youth rela­tion­ships help chil­dren grow up healthy and with skills to suc­ceed in school. Out­side of par­ents, schools, men­tors and youth pro­grams that offer young peo­ple con­struc­tive activ­i­ties like sports, arts and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties lead to reduced risks and bet­ter out­comes. Young peo­ple can thrive if adults and com­mu­ni­ties invest in them and their futures.

Exec­u­tive direc­tors and staff of youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly those sup­port­ing the young peo­ple with the most bar­ri­ers to suc­cess, are strug­gling to over­come dam­ag­ing stereo­types about youth. They encounter inflam­ma­to­ry and fre­quent­ly exag­ger­at­ed cov­er­age of crimes com­mit­ted by young peo­ple — often rein­forced by media. On their own, fac­tu­al data about crime trends are not help­ing to cor­rect mis­per­cep­tions sur­round­ing youth and their real­i­ties. A con­cert­ed sto­ry­telling and per­sua­sion effort in the media and with­in com­mu­ni­ties is required to neu­tral­ize harm­ful assump­tions and influ­ence poli­cies and practices.

This one-hour ses­sion will offer peo­ple in youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions — espe­cial­ly those with pub­lic-fac­ing roles — data-dri­ven strate­gies to shift harm­ful nar­ra­tives, including:

  • under­stand­ing pub­lic per­cep­tion about young people’s chal­lenges and potential;
  • learn­ing asset-based frames and mes­sages about what helps youth thrive, includ­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties, guid­ance and con­nec­tions to pos­i­tive adults that local youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide; and
  • dis­cov­er­ing how to bol­ster pos­i­tive sto­ry­telling about young peo­ple to counter per­va­sive neg­a­tive narratives.

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