Centering Youth Autonomy in Learning Spaces

As mentors, guardians or supervisors of young people, many of us inherently want to protect them and give them the best advice that we have. Much of the advice that we offer up often comes from our own lived experiences and are centered around how we navigated through the world, and rarely do we take into account how young people currently have to navigate it themselves. This can often lead to youth having self doubt of their own choices, taking away growing and learning opportunities or even space for new solutions.

In this course we will reflect on why our default when supporting young people often centers our experiences, rather than theirs, and how to move away from it, so we can support youth in their self determination journeys. We will also get to hear directly from young people how this default can be detrimental to their own ability to problem solve and find their own answers and choices when it comes to navigating the world. We hope that the conversations that take place in this space will help adults shift their perspective on how they can best support youth, and invite them to try out new practices when offering youth guidance.

This workshop is intended for people who work with youth ages 13-20.

In person