Abstract
Drawing on scholarship from the fields of positive youth development, critical youth studies, and out-of-school time learning, this chapter describes the radical potential of youth-adult partnerships (Y-AP) to foster individual and collective wellbeing. Guided by research by Shepherd (Zeldin et al., Am J Community Psychol 51:385–397, 2012) and our recent work (Brion-Meisels et al., At Our Best: Youth-adult partnerships in out-of-school time settings. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, 2020), we define youth-adult partnerships and argue that they foster a sense of youth belonging, agency, and reciprocally supportive relationships, which we understand as contributors to mental wellbeing. After delineating key aspects of Y-AP, we explore connections between the aspect of intergenerational collective action and Shawn Ginwright’s model of healing-centered engagement (2018) and their potential to promote wellbeing for both youth and adults. In making these connections, we synthesize a set of promising practices that foster authentic Y-APs toward healing-centered engagement and intergenerational wellbeing.
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Brion-Meisels, G., Vasudevan, D.S., Fei, J.T. (2023). Youth-Adult Partnerships that Foster Individual and Collective Wellbeing. In: Lester, J.N., O'Reilly, M. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives on Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_101-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_101-1
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Youth-Adult Partnerships that Foster Individual and Collective Wellbeing- Published:
- 21 July 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_101-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_101-1