Welcome!

My name is Sarah and I am a youth consultant. I work with non-profit organizations to help them bridge the gap between youth (aged 18-30) and their communities, to build resilient and adaptable organizations.

I’ll send you a newsletter every two weeks, sharing my insights, expertise, and practical tips or advice that you can apply to your organization.

If you have any youth engagement questions or are interested in my services, please don’t hesitate to reach out or email me at [email protected].

Want to learn more about me? Click here.

Happy reading!

I stumbled into youth engagement… and you probably did too.

My journey to getting into youth engagement is a bit… unorthodox. Let’s just say I never planned to get into youth engagement and until a year post-graduating university, I didn’t even know what it was.

What I’ve come to realize is that I was engaging youth well before I had it in my job title. Whether it was recruiting youth volunteers for a campaign I ran; inviting youth to decision meetings, or making sure they were front and center at important events - I’ve always been engaging youth someway or somehow.

So why am I telling you this? You probably already engage youth in your community to some degree, but perhaps not enough or not in a consistent manner. That is what needs to change.

But before we change anything, let’s understand what youth engagement is.

Youth Engagement: Youth engagement is the deliberate process of creating mutually beneficial partnerships between young people aged 18 to 30 and their community.

It is a strategic approach to talking, interacting and engaging with young people through your organization. Think of it as a mix between a communication and outreach strategy, with your predefined target audience being young people aged 18 to 30.

One of my favourite questions is, “Why should I bother engaging young people?”

Short answer: if you’re not, then you’re missing out.

Long answer: you’re overlooking key opportunities and untapped potential that could help your organization strengthen its community and drive growth.

Engaging youth will help your organization:

• amplify your impact

• highlight challenges in your community

• co-create solutions to challenges

• build a long-term support base

• expand your reach, mission and potential funding

Youth engagement can help with all that.

How?

The non-profit sector faces constant change and is riddled with outdated practices, but engaging young people can secure your organization’s future. They bring fresh ideas, community focus, and unique perspectives that drive innovation while building loyalty to grow into future leaders, donors, and supporters.

All you have to do is engage youth.

We’ll cover exactly where to start in the next issue!

Key Takeaway

Practical Tip Of The Week

Before creating new strategies and planning, I’d recommend evaluating your organization's approach to youth engagement.

Here are a few questions to get you thinking:

• Does your organization have any employees or volunteers between the ages of 18 to 30?

• Are these individuals regularly consulted on decisions that impact your community and organization?

• Are there any programs, projects, or initiatives that you believe could use or benefit from youth engagement? If so, why?

• Has your organization ever created external opportunities to reach youth?

• Does your organization have standing relationships with youth-serving organizations in the broader community?

If you want a more step-by-step guided approach to evaluating how your organization approaches youth engagement, check out the Youth Engagement Blueprint below!

Blog Post Recommendations

Your Youth Engagement Guides

Question For You!

I hope you enjoyed the first edition of the 2025 Youth Engagement Newsletter!

See you on February 4th, for the second edition of the newsletter, where we’ll talk all about how to start building a youth engagement strategy.

If you have any questions about my content, the possibility of working together or would just like to chat about youth engagement, then either reply to this email or send me an email at [email protected].

Have a great week!