Ensuring Equity, Access, and Opportunity for All Youth to Thrive
摘要
This chapter calls us to ensure equity, access, and opportunity exist for all young people to thrive. It is our collective hope that the work of positive youth development provides safe and supportive spaces for every young person to achieve their dreams with barriers removed. As youth-serving professionals, it is our responsibility to ensure every young person has the opportunity to benefit from a positive youth development experience. It is also our responsibility to acknowledge and respond to the reality that not every child has access to opportunities that support thriving outcomes. This will require us to increase our awareness and adjust our programs, cultural norms, investments, and policies in order to remove barriers for young people who experience inequity. In this chapter, we’ll ground ourselves in shared definitions and historical contexts related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We’ll move beyond words, as equity and justice require action by way of policy and practice. This chapter also offers practical tools and examples that we hope will support practitioners and organizations on their equity journey.