Sarah Barbosa Consulting: Your Partner in Youth Engagement

Have you ever sat in a room and thought to yourself, where are all the young people?

I have countless times. From my experience, however, it is not top of mind for many people until it's too late.

I've been in situations where, at the end of meetings, decision-makers turn to me to ask, "What do young people think about this?" as if one voice could represent an entire generation's perspective.

This got me thinking, would there ever be a time when youth were included in the discussion? Where youth had a seat at the table, and their voice was being listened to and their feedback implemented?

The thing is, there is a disconnect between youth and our communities. Youth are often portrayed as apathetic, disinterested, and self-centred.

This is contrary to what I have come to learn about youth, and I like to think it is contrary to who I am as a person.

I have come to learn that youth are engaged, passionate, and eager to contribute to their communities. The problem is that they don't know where to turn, and organizations struggle to reach out to them.

The solution to this? Bridge the gap between youth and our communities to increase youth engagement and drive forward the work organizations do.

Engaging with youth is essential for your organization and our communities.

Youth bring energy, passion, innovative ideas to complex solutions and an urge to help those around them – why wouldn’t you want that in your organization?

So, where do I fit into this exactly? I'm a Youth Consultant. I'm here to work with youth and community organizations to bridge the existing gap and refocus our efforts on addressing our communities most pressing issues.

How do I plan to do that?

- Creating youth volunteering programs and management systems.

- Coordinating and executing events that focus on youth.

- Developing and implementing youth outreach strategies.

It's time to bridge the gap between youth and our communities so we can all focus on helping those we care about most and including youth in the process.