Youth Leadership & Engagement
Tools, resources, support, and guidance led by, driven by, and informed by young people in PSY’s youth fellowship programs.
Young People Must Lead the Way.
Young people are the experts of their own lives and experiences, and we believe firmly in centering youth choice and affirming young people to make vital decisions that positively impact their lives.
With the help of our National Youth Advocates, we have developed the resources on this page to support organizations in hiring, training, and supporting youth mentors to provide peer navigation and support related to housing and HIV prevention, treatment, and care to QTBIPOC youth.
By centering the leadership, knowledge, and advocacy of young people we can end the youth homelessness crisis and also create the conditions needed for young people to flourish.
Meet the 2023-2024 National Youth Advocates
Rooted in Affirmation: How Peer Navigation Waters Communities
Young people experiencing homelessness deserve community, resources, and trust. This video explores how Point Source Youth is affirming young people through:
Direct Cash Transfers: Unconditional cash to create a safety net and path out of homelessness.
Peer Navigation: Young people guide each other towards housing, healthcare (including HIV prevention & care), and achieving their goals.
This innovative approach prioritizes youth agency and dismantles barriers. Learn how your community can:
Build Equity: Support historically marginalized youth.
Thrive Together: Empower young people to create a better future for themselves and their communities. Watch to discover how youth-led solutions restore power to young people and simultaneously allow communities to thrive.
Peer Navigation: A Youth-led Roadmap to Success
Our National Youth Empowerment and Mentorship Initiative’s cohort of leaders worked hard to expand youth mentorship in communities across the country. When young people experience homelessness, thrive as they live with HIV or brave discrimination on the basis of sexuality or identity, they have invaluable knowledge of how to best navigate these challenges. When a trusted peer navigator helps a young person navigate systems and services, youth become more connected to resources and new networks of peers, providers, and support groups. Watch the video we created in collaboration with youth leaders to learn more about the importance and impacts of youth mentorship programs.
Handbooks And Tools
Hire Youth!
Best Practices For Peer Navigators
Welcome to the world of peer navigation. In this manual, you will learn the foundations, practices, and strategies needed to establish and sustain a peer navigation program in your community.
At the heart of this work lies the belief that hiring youth with lived experience can fundamentally shape the services we provide, for the better. We recognize the immense value that comes from lived experience, and by offering Peer Navigators a livable wage, we can uplift them to become catalysts for change.
National Youth Mentorship And Peer Navigation Initiative
With the help of our National Youth Advocates and the support of ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action Community Grant Program, we have developed this handbook to hire, train, and support hundreds of youth mentors to provide peer navigation and support related to HIV prevention, treatment, and care and housing to QTBIPOC youth.
“The realities of the world are ever-changing and without incorporating youth, programs for youth are created by relying on assumptions. Peer navigators and youth mentors have the lived experience of navigating resources and obstacles and are able to better inform youth programs.”
Mónica García Vega,
National Youth Empowerment And Mentorship Initiative Leader
Continue Your Learning
Explore our youtube playlist featuring trainings and best practices on meaningful youth leadership and engagement from youth leaders and advocates across the country.
