August 13, 2025
At MENTOR Nebraska, we imagine that collaboration is essential to creating lasting change. That perception led us to assist launch the Youth Growth Coalition —an initiative that brings mentoring and out-of-school time packages collectively to strengthen statewide advocacy and guarantee youth voices are on the middle of coverage choices. Shared pursuits, audiences, and programmatic targets in these two youth improvement sectors make this a pure, mutually-reinforcing partnership.
MENTOR Nebraska, in collaboration with Collective for Youth and Past College Bells — two main spine organizations within the out-of-school time area — started by discovering alignment and figuring out shared targets and priorities throughout organizations. This led to the foundational steps within the improvement of the coalition, together with:
- Participating in a joint contract with a trusted lobbyist group to analyze youth improvement coverage alternatives within the state legislature.
- Convening greater than 20 youth-serving organizations from throughout Nebraska to hunt buy-in concerning the curiosity and capability for the event of a coalition.
- Facilitating a relationship-mapping survey to higher perceive our present connections with key decision-makers, particularly these on the Training, Appropriations, Well being & Human Providers, and Judiciary Committees. The outcomes helped us see the energy of our community and uncovered new alternatives for strategic, coordinated engagement with lawmakers.
To kick off our coalition-building efforts, I facilitated a visioning session to reply questions round what success appears like, what shared values ought to floor the coalition work, and potential challenges within the improvement and ongoing work of a coalition. This session created a basis of transparency concerning the intent of the coalition. Subsequent month-to-month convenings centered on the creation of mission, imaginative and prescient, and values statements to information the coalition work. The collective vitality was unbelievable —there’s one thing highly effective about bringing mission-aligned organizations collectively to co-create a imaginative and prescient that none of us may accomplish alone.
To maneuver from imaginative and prescient to motion, we started creating areas for public dialogue and group engagement. One such instance was a Neighborhood Dialog on the State of Youth Programming, a convening held in June, inviting native and state policymakers, nonprofit leaders, educators, funders, and—most significantly—younger folks. A panel of youth shared their lived experiences and provided considerate suggestions for a way techniques and packages can higher assist them. Their voices grounded the dialogue in actuality and reminded us why this work is so essential.
For different MENTOR Associates and youth-serving organizations throughout the nation, listed below are just a few takeaways from our journey:
- Begin with shared objective. A transparent and unified purpose builds belief and units the muse for collective motion.
- Leverage collective relationships. You possible have already got helpful connections—establish them, map them out, and use them to open doorways.
- Middle youth voice early and sometimes. Younger folks needs to be energetic members within the course of—not simply as storytellers, however as leaders and co-creators.
- Create area for sincere dialogue. Coverage change is a protracted recreation, and it begins by constructing relationships—not solely with legislators but additionally with each other.
As we have fun Advocacy August, I encourage each youth-serving group to discover alternatives to convene, collaborate, and co-lead. After we align throughout organizations, techniques, and sectors, we’re not simply advocating for younger folks—we’re advocating with them.
Collectively, we will construct a future the place each younger individual has the assist, alternatives, and voice they deserve.
