Several core characteristics make up each collaborative, which influence how collaboratives address youth disconnection and its root causes in their communities. Based on interviews with collaborative leads, partners, and youth leaders, Equal Measure found two emerging elements: collaborative identity and approach.

Collaborative Identity

Five contextual factors shape the identity of collaboratives:

• History, such as colonization or social movements
• Social/cultural factors, or the values, practices, relationships, and networks within communities
• Political/economic factors, locally and regionally
• Geographic location, such as urban, rural, and tribal collaboratives
• Experience as a collaborative within communities

These origin stories form the background for why the collaboratives exist and how they work.

Collaborative Approach

Through conversations with collaboratives about their structure, strategies, programs, and progress toward goals, Equal Measure found three approaches that all collaboratives implemented, informed by their identity.

• Partner relationships: The breadth and depth of partnerships, as well as how much partners were part of programming and decision-making for the collaborative
• Root causes: Articulating and addressing the underlying causes of youth disconnection
• Youth engagement: Centering youth voice and perspective, including in the decisions about the collaborative’s strategies and vision

Equal Measure’s brief highlights four collaboratives—Greenville, Mississippi; Hawai’i; Los Angeles County, California; and Taos Pueblo—as examples of how collaborative identity and approach inform the systems change journeys of each site.

Read the full brief.

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Project Team Members:

• Samantha Rivera Joseph
• Robert Roach
• Giselle Saleet
• Jennifer Thompson
• Carise Mitch
• Roseleni Ortiz Ramos