Deciding Who Can Help
In your action plan, include people who can help your Youth Advisory Council achieve its goals.
- Which young people and adults would care about this plan?
- Who might the plan affect?
- Who has the knowledge, skills, or resources to help your plan succeed?
- How can you include the young people and adults that may be affected by the plan?
- Who can help you create the action plan or provide necessary support for success?
- What resources do you need to support the planning process? Who can bring those resources to the project?
Engage people who share your goal to address the issues in your action plan. Including young people with different lived experiences and points of view is important. Why? Because it increases the chances that you will understand the problem, identify challenges and barriers to your work, and develop real solutions. Also, involve people who can provide the resources—such as space, money, or equipment—that you need to carry out your action plan.
YACs are stronger with connections. To build leadership and teamwork skills, look for other groups, such as community-based organizations, that are already working on the issue you want to address and find out what worked for them. Think about how you can partner with these groups as you write your action plan. Be sure to include people who have access to other organizations, data, and information about your population and the issue you want to address.