News organizations are finding success in uniting generations by revisiting and reframing community history, but they’re also seeing the value of putting younger generations in the driver’s seat. Involving young people in civic discourse is an essential way to shape the future of a community, and newsrooms have the unique ability to serve as convener while gaining valuable insights from facilitating intergenerational discourse.
That’s what CivicLex has learned over the last two years while hosting Civic Expos, town hall-type gatherings at local high schools where students can meet and engage with city and community leaders. A combination of civic education and in-person interaction, writes Haley Wartell, enables students to confidently engage with their community — and offers a coveted space for local leaders to connect with the next generation.
Multigenerational problem solving can be powerful and valuable — as long as mutual understanding and respect is built in. Too often, youth voices are relegated to shaping the future instead of contributing to their communities today, write Mississippi Free Press’ Donna Ladd and Hart Jefferson, who work together to facilitate community problem-solving gatherings.
Giving young people a space to interact with community leaders, and facilitating such gatherings to empower them to lead the conversation, can create a lasting and mutually beneficial feedback loop for newsrooms.
Student-led civic engagement
Young people bring a unique and innovative perspective to local issues because of their ability to dream big and not be tied down by existing systemic expectations, CivicLex’s Haley Wartell writes. Encouraging students to get involved in local civic life can help them develop a sense of belonging and ownership for their community. And an active civic life can empower young people to understand and lead the change they want to see — a mindset that will surely follow them into adulthood.
Local news has a stake in youth civic engagement, not only as a new way to engage with younger audiences but as a way to help shape the future of the community it covers.
Here are some tips she shares for facilitating a successful student-led town hall:
- They’re hosted at the individual schools during the school day. Bringing these local leaders to a familiar space empowers students to be more confident and have more frank conversations.
- The Expos aren’t too big. These aren’t district-wide events, making them more manageable and giving students more space to have those one-on-one conversations.
- Garner direct student input. We’ve seen the power of organizations that bring not only fun tabling supplies, but also an activity where students feel their voices are heard. For example, our local writing center takes ideas for new classes to offer.
Newsrooms can similarly leverage their connections with local organizations and leaders to engage with students. Start with approachable opportunities like sending the email of a local judge to a student who is interested in learning more about the justice system or collaborating with a teacher to host a panel about housing in their classroom. Our experience is that if you make yourself available as a trusted, unbiased resource for community knowledge, teachers and students will reach out.
Overcoming assumptions in multigenerational problem-solving
Mississippi Free Press’ Donna Ladd met Hart Jefferson, at the time a high schooler, during an event that brings together community members to brainstorm solutions to local challenges. Today they facilitate these Solutions Circles together.
For us, Ladd writes, we knew one of our biggest hurdles to success would be challenging the assumptions, both spoken and unspoken, we held for others. And in the case of Hart and me, and those we represent, the generational assumptions we held would either stall our work or encourage it.
Here’s what they learned over the past three years of gathering multigenerational problem-solvers.
- Lead by listening. Conversations need to be marked by sincerity, give-and-take and deep-listening — on both sides. In our experience, it is primarily the older participant’s responsibility to model listening deeply and engaging in a genuine back-and-forth conversation. When older generations lead with this approach, we communicate that we are open to a genuine exchange of ideas, not just trying to pat ourselves on the back for “working with young people.”
- Embrace creative learning styles. Consider all communication styles and plan to accommodate them in creative, sensory brainstorms. When done well, this gives younger colleagues the confidence to present their ideas alongside more seasoned participants. We see this play out when the full Mississippi Free Press team collaborates with the teenagers of the Mississippi Youth Media Project to brainstorm story ideas. Everyone participates in the discussion, idea collection and presentation using various creative and visual tools. These exercises help students generate ideas for their reporting.
- Pair listening with action. Younger generations often feel that the opinions from older people are outdated, while older generations believe young people do not have enough life experience for their ideas to be trusted, Jefferson writes. Neither, of course, is true. Effective cross-generational change, be it in the journalism community or on Capitol Hill, will not occur unless the listening is followed by action, which demonstrates that people — especially young people — have been heard.
- Don’t shy away from building authentic relationships. To effectively engage with younger generations, ask and listen in a real way, Ladd writes. Follow up when you meet brilliant young minds and get them involved in meaningful ways. Don’t expect them to agree with everything. Ask for their advice. Learn from them. Be yourself and don’t be self-conscious about being older. Show them you believe in them, their ideas and their abilities while being willing to disagree respectfully. This is how we share power and invest our own social capital in the future; these engagements help them gain the confidence to offer new ideas, engage openly and critique other ideas.
