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Youth Master Planning
Why Municipal Leaders Develop Youth Master Plans
Youth master planning is a process in which the community brings together various constituencies - including young people, the school district, the city, parents, businesses, and others - to engage in a process of gathering and using information to establish a set of priorities for the community at large. Based on those priorities, specific action steps are established to improve the lives of children, young people, and families in that community.
These plans allow city and school leaders to take stock of all the ways they currently serve youth, discover new opportunities, and address pressing needs while continuing to maintain the services and supports that are showing positive results.
Youth master planning processes offer many benefits to cities, including a better alignment of resources to reduce duplication of services and eliminate service gaps; coordination of city, school, and community efforts to improve outcomes for youth; cost savings; and opportunities for citizen input and youth participation. The planning process helps create the foundation for an engagement of all groups working on youth-related issues - so they do more - and do it more strategically.
What Municipal Leaders Can Do to Create Youth Master Plans
While each city tailors their plan to meet unique local needs, youth master plans typically share many common elements. Municipal leaders can initiate planning processes by:
- Working with other stakeholders to develop and promote a shared vision articulated by city, school and other community leaders linked to measurable indicators of progress;
- Engaging a strong youth voice in shaping and implementing the plan;
- Ensuring broad-based collaboration among local government, youth, and other key partners focused on the well-being of young people;
- Assessing needs, current resources and investments, and emerging opportunities
- Designating a coordinating agency or intermediary organization to facilitate communication, align resources with policies and programs, and monitor implementation.
- Promoting shared accountability through common outcome measures, delegation of responsibility for implementing strategies, a timeline for each action step, and efforts to generate community support for the plan.
- Developing a strategy to institutionalize the plan as a guide for future investments in youth through clear and consistent messages to the media, effective marketing of the plan to residents, ongoing youth engagement in local government, and sustainable funding streams.
Goals of the YEF Institute's Youth Master Planning Programs
The goal of the YEF Institute's youth master planning program is to:
- Help municipal leaders determine if developing a youth master plan is right for their cities;
- Assist cities in developing youth master plans through technical assistance initiatives, publications and other useful guides and resources, and sharing of best practices; and
- Promoting effective city-school collaboration and youth engagement in youth master planning efforts.
Youth Master Planning Staff Contacts
Leon Andrews, Program Director: 202-626-3039 or andrews@nlc.org
Kate Sandel, Senior Program Associate: 202-626-3046 or sandel@nlc.org
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