Bridging The Gap: Three Tips to Build a Succesful Youth Outreach Strategy

Do you want to create a successful youth outreach strategy? Then look no further!

Creating a youth outreach strategy is all about connecting youth to your cause, mission and community. While we tend to focus on the bigger picture of how this will happen, we often forget to take a step back and examine the small details that will attract youth to your organization.

Here are three tips or considerations to keep in mind when creating your organization's youth outreach strategy:

Youth Outreach Tip 1: Consult Youth

You might be thinking to yourself, how can I consult youth if I haven’t even spoken to them yet? Chances are, you have a plethora of youth surrounding you right now. Whether it’s a youth volunteer already working with you, or youth colleagues, this is an excellent opportunity to ask them what they the young people want from your organization. Ask them why they were interested in your organization in the first place and what they think might attract other youth to your mission.

Creating a youth outreach strategy without youth won’t get you very far. It’s as youth asked how we connect with Gen Xers, but they only consulted the youth on the matter. The key idea here is that the foundations for your youth outreach strategy can only be understood when you have a conversation with an individual who understands the very people you’re trying to reach out to.

Youth Outreach Tip 2: Explain What’s in it for Them?

Perhaps a common practice in the communications world, but it is also applicable here, you need to explain what’s in it for them. Why should youth care about your cause? Why should they care about your organization? What will they get out of participating in your community? What is in it for them?

Youth, just like everyone else, has a million and one thing going on. If they are going to choose to spend time giving back to your community, you have to be able to articulate not only the impact they will make on others but also what will be in it for them.

Youth Outreach Tip 3: Reach youth where they are at

Again, I might be borrowing from the communications field (in all honesty that’s the field you’re engaging in when creating an outreach strategy) but you need to reach youth where they are. In a perfect world, youth would be flocking to you and would be the ones coming to you, but that’s hardly the case in any scenario. If you want to engage with youth and reach out to them then you need to go where they are. If youth are primarily on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, then trying to get their attention on X (twitter) or Facebook, won’t get you very far.

Depending on your organization, you likely already know where your audience is on social media thanks to your demographics and analytics. Take some time to ask yourself, do we have a lot of youth that follow us? If not, which platforms should we be looking into?

Youth outreach involves just that – outreach. As we know, outreach means taking an active step toward the groups of people you want to attract to your organization. That starts with meeting youth where they are.

These three tips are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to engaging with youth and creating a sustainable youth outreach strategy. What counts is that you are engaging them, bridging the gap and working alongside them to better your community. Keep that in mind as you develop your strategy and believe you me, things will change for the better.

Of course, if you need a bit of extra help, don’t hesitate to reach out – youth outreach strategies are what I do best!

What are some of your tips for a successful youth outreach strategy? Let me know!