This guide by the National Mentoring Resource Center provides tips for implementing youth voice through a youth advisory council.
This guide, published by the National Mentoring Resource Center and written by the NMRC Youth Council, offers tips and recommendations for including youth voices through the creation of a youth advisory council. This guide is designed for organizations that want to involve young voices and input in their practices, activities, and programs. The tips and recommendations are crafted by young people for programs to use to better integrate youth voices and improve youth capacities and may be applicable to general opportunities for youth integration, but primarily this guide focuses on youth voice elevation through a youth advisory council. The guide was developed with input from nine dedicated youth who are committed to improving their communities. This includes four NMRC Youth Advisory Council members and five peer focus group members. Launched in January 2014, the National Mentoring Resource Center is a comprehensive and reliable resource for mentoring tools, program and training materials, and provides no-cost training and technical assistance to youth mentoring programs across the United States. Formed in spring of 2021, the NMRC Youth Advisory Council is currently composed of young leaders who identify as youth mentees and peer mentors that convenes to provide “thought leadership” and guidance on ways to center and elevate youth voice and the mentee experience on the NMRC.