YOUTHINK Participates in Harvard Study
Eight Portland students involved with the youth civic engagement group, YOUTHINK, recently participated in a Harvard research study titled “Young People’s Perspectives on Relationships and Community.” The study explores young people’s sense of trust in their community. YOUTHINK members were selected as participants because of their high level of civic engagement and leadership.
Kira Conley, a senior at Portland High School, was one of the participants. “The study made me think about how I look at trust in my personal life, in situations that are important to me but society in general doesn’t see that way,” she said. “In YOUTHINK, we have to trust one another to accomplish our goals, and we have to trust adults in the community to listen to our perspectives. But I hadn’t thought about how that might affect my personal life before now.”
In two sets of interviews, YOUTHINK members responded to questions about trust in their everyday lives as well as hypothetical trust scenarios. Conducted by The GoodWork Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the study results will be released in the near future. Carrie James, project manager, said, “The ultimate goal of this project is to develop educational tools to help young people understand issues involved in determining the trustworthiness of their fellow citizens, societal institutions and sources of information.”
Ainsley Wallace, YOUTHINK director, said, “It is exciting for YOUTHINK members to be recognized for their extraordinary level of civic involvement. We are interested to discover how students’ participation in community leadership affects their sense of trust in community institutions, news media and local leaders.”
YOUTHINK is a youth-driven organization that creates positive change in Portland by empowering young people to speak and to act on issues that affect their lives. YOUTHINK currently is working on a youth rights campaign, planning a summit of Portland youth to create an agenda of common priority issues, conducting trainings for the Portland Youth Advisory Council and working with local high schools to create a service-learning elective course.
The board of 25 young people has awarded $20,000 in mini-grants to more than 200 students in the last three years. YOUTHINK’s local partners include Portland Public Schools, the Portland Education Partnership, and the United Way of Greater Portland.
