YouthBuild (YB) is a non-profit for low-income young people in the United States and abroad. It exists to unleash their intelligence and positive energy. It is rebuilding communities and transforming lives.
Here’s why
- 3 million 16 to 24-year-olds are low-income and neither in school nor employed in the US.
- 16 to 24-year-olds are the feeder demographic for those 25 to 54, considered “prime working age”.
- Incarcerated youth cost ~$50,000 – $100,000/year while YB’s program costs ~$20,000/year.
- Globally, over 200M 16 to 24-year-olds are working poor and earn less than $2.00 a day.
YB began in East Harlem as an experiment to “Mobilize teenagers to become a positive force for change”. Now it offers over 240 programs across 45 states and 21 countries. Dorothy Stoneman, YB Founder celebrates the organization’s 40-year success this way. “When they see love and opportunity combined in a safe and respectable place, transformation happens quickly.”
I sat down with David Abromowitz, YB USA’s Chief Public Policy Officer, to discuss YB’s mission and impact. Over the past 26 years, David has helped YB navigate many growth-related challenges. Through it all, YB’s success rests on its ability to reframe the perceptions of its members and the world at large.
Here are three things their success-story teaches about realizing a transformation
- YB’s model gives youth a voice. It would be easy to convince these youth and the world they should listen more than speak. Yet, in 1978 Dorothy Stoneman asked East Harlem youth a simple question. “How would you improve your community if you had adult support?” Her question sparked a movement and the philosophy behind it sustains the model to this day.
David noted, “Everyone has the same potential, but not everyone is planted in the same soil.” YB stays true to young peoples’ voices, circumstances, and their potential for change. David continued, “On the national USA YB Board, one-third of the seats are graduates of YB programs. Furthermore, the model requires local YB programs to have a student policy council. Enrollees use their council to discuss issues and solutions affecting their community.”
YB is transforming the perception that “opportunity youth” don’t know what’s best for their future. Giving them a voice at the Board level and in every program fuels the confidence they build in the program. It reinforces the belief that YB’s future rests on their words. Furthermore, it challenges the world to learn from those they are prone to silence.
If you’re a leader of change, give voice to those most central to the change. If you give the characters central to your change a voice, they will make things better. You might not like what they say but acting on their insights will help you realize the change. Unfortunately, senior leaders often overemphasize their own voices and tradeoff listening.
Change fails because those responsible for it lack belief, understanding, or contribution. When an organization fails to hear from its frontline, it fails to identify gaps in one of these areas. Moreover, commitment increases when goals are shared with people of higher status.
Organizational change is hard because it requires people to change. The best question to ask those responsible for a change is, “What does this mean for you?” When they personalize the meaning and impact of change it strengthens their resolve to realize it.
- YB’s model neutralizes power differentials. YB creates a dialogue between those on the margins and those in the mainstream. YB brokers real relationships between its members and policymakers.
David recounted a conversation between a senator’s staffer, Jim, and a YB graduate. Within minutes, they created common ground in a love for the same college football team. Jim inquired about her future and because of the peer-ship, she then asked the same of him. David noted, “The staffer loved it because they were on equal footing and were each talking back and forth. We try to create settings where there’s more than just a brief handshake.”
YB is transforming the perception that those out of power must defer their agency to those in power. David notes the impact YB has on transforming its members. “I’ve now had the privilege to meet thousands of YB students and graduates over the years. In YB, it is the love and attention of caring adults that lets them believe in and speak up for themselves.”
If you’re a leader of change, create a context for leaders to take hold of their agency. Most people have a sense of their strengths and weaknesses. Most also have a sense of what they enjoy and don’t enjoy doing. During change, it is hard to connect your story to the role you play in ensuring its success. In fact, when change is a top-down mandate it serves to reinforce an abdication of a leader’s agency.
Power is a core human attribute. As a leader of change, power is not yours to give or take from others. Power resides in every individual and is theirs to own and exhibit. Create the context for leaders to realize their role and the power they bring to a successful change.
If leaders feel change is being imposed on them or believe they’re a victim of it, help them assume more of their power. Skip level meetings, when leaders meet with leaders two or three levels below them, activate latent agency during change. They increase information and access to those in the know and heighten responsibility. Make change sticky by requiring everyone to embrace more of their leadership.
- YB’s model enables youth to serve. Service is in YB’s DNA and it ensures members are more than recipients. YB believes that when individuals serve and give back, everyone wins.
David pointed out that funders’ return on investment is as much a societal one as an individual one. “The dividend is collective to society. Research shows there is a $1M dollar return for getting opportunity youth their diploma and work skills.” Additionally, research shows how goals that focus on others alleviate depression and anxiety.
YB is transforming the perception that needy youth do not have tangible value to offer. They reshape the “handout” narrative from “I have nothing to give” to “I have much to contribute.” YB leverages these experiences to ensure individual transformation sticks. Amy was six months into her program and in poverty when she met Senator Warren of Massachusetts. When asked by Senator Warren what she wanted after YB, here’s how she responded.
“Well, Senator I have a five-year plan. After I get out, I want to go to a local culinary college and get my preliminary degree because I love to cook. But more than that, our community has poor services around quality food. I want to create a restaurant with home-cooked locally-sourced meals. And you know, I walk around the streets of Springfield and there are a lot of homeless people. When I have my restaurant, I am going to take a percentage of my profits to help the homeless in Springfield.”
If you’re a leader of change, make givers out of takers. Too often the value proposition stops at individual buy-in. When the value of change is only for individuals it is hard for an organization to create a movement. Instead of creating mass momentum the workforce becomes entitled and disengaged.
Adam Grant notes, “Organizations have a strong interest in fostering giving behavior.” This is particularly true during change. When leaders focus on others’ success as much as their own, the system profits. These giving-related behaviors speed enterprise outcomes by tapping new information and collaborative networks.
Normalize the expectation that leaders are change-reinforcers, not only recipients. Bring the work of change out in the open and make connections among those involved. Create formal and informal mechanisms for leaders to opt into the change as it unfolds. When you expect participation during change, individual involvement will enliven others’ participation.
As a leader of change, focus on strengthening others’ perception of the change and their role in it. Doing so will maximize your leadership of it and warranty a successful outcome.