Empowering Young People

Grounded in progressive values, Empowering Young People takes stock of the pressing challenges we face as a society while highlighting how youth activists can help us envision a more collaborative, equitable, and inclusive future. In recent years, young people have sounded the alarm about a wide range of concerns connected to environmental and social injustices. They focus on immigration, reproductive rights, race, school issues—including book banning, gun violence, police brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, mental health, and more. By bringing historical and social justice perspectives to his interviews with young activists and their mentors, as well as his observations about community organizations, William Marsiglio chronicles the kind of youth activism and civic engagement that is happening on the ground. Finding inspiration in young people’s approaches to empathy, leadership, civic engagement, and social activism, this volume outlines diverse and specific initiatives for building supportive institutions and opportunities that can empower them while fostering their ideal form of social change defined by environmental sustainability and humane inclusivity. While Empowering Young People is for readers and activists of all ages, it will also appeal to an interdisciplinary network of scholars who study young people, social movements, place, and social psychology.