Institutional Support for Increasing Youth Engagement:
Building Participatory Structures with Young People

I work with schools and youth-serving organizations to design participatory processes where young people are treated as experts in their own lives. Drawing on over a decade of experience in youth work, children’s rights, and community engagement, I work to make the places and spaces kids inhabit safer and more inclusive.

My services focus on understanding the power structures between children and adults, and how our views on children and childhood affect our work. I provide concrete methods for involving young people more in decision-making processes to heighten engagement and cooperation among both children and staff in institutional settings. To do this, we can reflect on existing structures, processes, and belief systems within ourselves and our organizations, and then take action to better protect, provide for, and co-design with kids.

Participatory Program Design & Strategy Consulting

I support organizations in designing and strengthening youth participation structures that are ethical, effective, and sustainable. This work is tailored to each context and may include:

• Audits of existing youth participation practices  

• Program and process redesign  

• Youth advisory board development  

• Support for staff navigating power, boundaries, and change  

Workshops & Trainings

I design and facilitate practical trainings for adults working with young people, grounded in children’s rights and participatory practice, with a focus on everyday professional settings.

• Children as Beings Versus Becomings: How Our View of Young People Shapes Our Work

• Flipping the Script: Sharing Power Without Losing Structure

• Fun as Resistance: How We Can Create Space for Joy Regardless of Setting

Sessions can be delivered as 90-minute workshops, half-day trainings, or full-day formats.

Speaking, Facilitation & Event Hosting

I speak at conferences, universities, and public events on youth participation, youth programming, and rights-based practice. I also host and moderate participatory panels and creative formats designed to actively engage audiences.

Creative Workshops with Children and Youth

As part of educational or afterschool programming, or through city projects, I offer activities for young people based on their settings and interests. I have worked with children and teens to involve them in the design process of new playgrounds, to explore tools used in art therapy and visual storytelling, and to dive into the world of biography work and performance.

Comedy as Critical Pedagogy

Based on my experience working with kids and teens, combined with 9 years of doing stand-up comedy and hosting a monthly show, I offer instruction on how to be funny without being hurtful. Participants engage with their own stories and social justice themes, while learning new forms of self-expression and having fun. 

In a relaxed and judgement-free zone, we practice:

• Writing jokes 

• Turning our every day lives into funny stories

• Exploring different forms of comedy

• Talking about social justice

• Using humor as a coping mechanism