Youth Voice is Heard Here: An Exploration of Empowerment-Focused Youth Development Programming at Intimate Partner Violence Organizations

Empowerment-focused positive youth development (PYD) approaches have advocated for meaningful engagement with youth in community life. In response to high rates of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in youth dating relationships, IPV-specific service organizations have adopted youth-specific programs, but there is limited research on how they engage with youth clients. This exploratory study sought to develop an increased understanding of the strategies, approaches, and philosophical orientations that IPV organizations employ with youth. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of staff from IPV organizations (n = 35). The interview guide elicited participants’ perspectives on how organizations work with youth. Thematic content analysis involved multiple rounds of inductive coding and cross-case analysis. Results revealed that IPV organizations work with youth in three distinct ways: providing prevention-based education, offering direct clinical services, and, to a lesser degree, harnessing youth voices through sponsoring youth engagement programming such as youth advisory boards. Direct service and prevention education programming predominantly positions youth as recipients of staff-initiated programming or as targets of prevention education rather than as collaborative partners. Strategies for meaningfully amplifying youth voices in movement building and strengthening organizational planning and evaluation will be discussed.