Prioritizing the growth, development, and well-being of individuals who are engaged in change initiatives.
Facilitating group process to engage individuals and groups fully and to enable strong relationships, clear communication, and shared decision making.
Building strong connections, communication, and supports between individuals, communities, and systems.
Assuring that groups identify what data is most useful for understanding the challenge they are facing and that they are able to track the difference that their efforts are making.
Sharing lessons learned with community groups, the broader public, funders, and systems to educate, inform and build greater will for responding to community needs.
Youth & Community Engagement (YCE) is part of the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the
University of Southern Maine.
Since the late 1990s, YCE’s staff have been working with individuals and communities to leverage their leadership and build their skills, resources, and capacity. Our nationally recognized initiatives provide opportunities for those who don’t typically have a voice in decision-making to be heard, to be valued, and to have their input incorporated. Our approach enables all stakeholders to have a greater understanding of community problems and to apply more effective responses to those problems.
The Youth and Community Engagement Team engages individuals and communities in identifying the challenges that they face and creating effective responses to those challenges
Those who are most impacted by social problems have the best capacity to develop solutions.
Each individual brings expertise, and including many different perspectives creates more effective strategies and solutions.
Communities are made strong for all people by acknowledging the full truth of the past, embracing the full truth of the present, and committing to creating
a just future.
All people learn and grow in the process of working toward better communities.