Funders want their grants to make the greatest impact possible, but how do you really know what will make an impact? And who do you listen to in order to figure that out?
If your funding supports kids, then they should be included among those you’re listening to. Youth tend to get written off as not having enough experience to provide valid perspective or even unwilling to participate in opportunities to share their thoughts. In our experience, neither is true.
At the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund, we primarily fund behavioral health programs and services for children and youth ages 0-19. To truly understand and support their needs, we have begun talking to, building trust with, and centering the perspectives and experiences of youth who live and attend school in St. Louis County.
Incorporating youth into our work takes time and effort, but for us – and hopefully for you, too – it is worth it. Here are a few ways we’ve begun to center youth perspective in our work.
Give Youth A Platform
Last year for Mental Health Awareness Month, we hosted our first youth-led event, Youth Voices: A Panel on Mental Health. Alex Zhang and Legacy Jackson, two local high school students, and Ebony Hutchinson, a local mental health provider who works with youth, shared their perspectives on how they and their peers view mental health, what roles social media, family, and schools play in the state of their mental health, and what they want adults to know when it comes to supporting them.
It was important to us that our teen panelists knew that we were looking at them as experts, not kids. In order to do this, we held planning meetings to help panelists feel comfortable going into the event, paid each panelist for their time, allowed them to speak freely (no reviewing talking points ahead of time or asking them to avoid certain topics), invited providers serving youth to hear what they had to say, and filmed the event (with panelists’ consent) to broaden the reach and impact of their messages.
Alex, Legacy, and Ebony had incredible insights that helped us at CSF and our funded partners better understand what kids need to feel supported. The panel event is available to watch in full on our website.
Include Youth When Assessing Community Need
In 2022, we conducted a community needs assessment in partnership with SKIP to better understand the social-emotional needs of elementary school children in St. Louis County. The assessment helped identify ways to improve social-emotional wellness in schools. Through group workshops and individual interviews, we heard from area fourth graders about what supports work for them in schools and what they need to thrive.
This year, we are working on a collaborative community health needs assessment in partnership with Saint Louis Mental Health Board, which serves the City of St. Louis. When planning listening sessions, it was important to us to make sure we heard from youth directly. We worked with schools and our partner providers to reach high school students, youth experiencing homelessness, and elementary-aged students. What they and others told us will help shape our investment strategy for years to come. We look forward to sharing their perspectives with you.
Create a Path for Youth To Directly Shape Your Work
This year, we have begun developing our first Youth Advisory Council. Our vision is that this group of 14- to 19-year-olds will advise us on youth need and develop our first youth-led grant cycle, putting their voice front and center and helping them build grantmaking skills. We have found a partner with experience leading similar work to co-facilitate the Youth Advisory Council with us. All council members will be paid to participate, and we hope this experience will encourage them to consider a career in philanthropy. Our goal is to make our Youth Advisory Council a meaningful way for youth to shape our investment strategies.
Youth are the end recipients of our funding, so it only makes sense that they should play a role in what and how we fund. These are just a few ways funders might consider incorporating the perspectives of young people into their work. We hope that by working in tandem with them, the impact of our investments will continue to grow alongside evolving community need.