Supporting Youth to Thrive Takes an Ecosystem
Kimberly Howard Robinson, Forum for Youth Investment
Tom Akiva, University of Pittsburgh School of Education
This is the first in a series of blogs from the editors and authors of It Takes an Ecosystem: Understanding the People, Places, and Possibilities of Learning and Development Across Setting. A new blog highlighting a chapter or theme of the book will be posted every other week.
The 18+ months of the COVID-19 pandemic have provided myriad opportunities for leaders in youth serving fields to consider the ways in which we are interconnected and how young people are best served when we work together. That is, we can serve youth better when systems and the adults who work within them coordinate and partner in ways that more holistically support the needs of young people, their families, and communities.
When we developed a concept for an edited volume in the Current Issues in Out-of-School Time Series that would focus on learning and development ecosystems, along with a group of thought leaders connected to the Readiness Projects, none of us had any idea that we would be compiling a book in a time of such tremendous disturbance and change. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with all of its terribleness, has provided opportunities to see and hear differently, to act differently, and to work in more coordinated ways to support the very clear and real needs faced by young people across the country.
The book, It Takes an Ecosystem: Understanding the People, Places, and Possibilities of Learning and Development Across Settings, came out at what we feel is an incredibly timely moment. The vision of learning and development ecosystems is being tested in real time and is needed more than ever. Over the last year, we’ve seen schools and community-based partners collaborate to serve students both in-person and through remote learning. We’ve seen communities organize around summer learning as a strategy to support the holistic educational needs of young people and their families, rather than focusing solely on academic learning loss. We’ve seen young people advocate for their own opportunities and envision how adults and systems must reorganize to support those opportunities. We’ve also seen tremendous inequities — in access to and the quality of learning experiences that are available to young people based on where they live and their racial and social identities.
We know that we cannot go back to the way things were before the pandemic, nor do we want to go back to many of the inequitable systems. And we humbly hope that this book contributes a set of insights for how we can build and rebuild our learning and development ecosystems together. The book’s four major themes, which are woven throughout each chapter, provide a set of guiding frames and insights for reimagined and more interconnected learning and development ecosystems that can support youth to thrive.
First, the book details the value of an ecosystem framework for moving the youth fields forward.
Building on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems framework, and borrowing from biological ecosystem management, we explore the ways that multiple systems interact to shape learning and development and how taking an approach to manage the ecosystem rather than focusing narrowly on one system at a time can yield more effective results. We also explore the idea of a keystone species (spoiler — it’s the adults who work with youth!) and consider how supporting and investing in the adults who work with young people can help to ensure the overall health of the ecosystem.
Second, the book is rooted in the science of learning and development, a synthesis of research evidence from multiple scientific fields about how learning happens.
Importantly, the science shows what many practitioners have long known, that young people can best learn when they are in physically and psychologically safe environments that provide rich relationships, key developmental experiences, and that cultivate a sense of belonging. Leading with relationships and interpersonal connection is a well-known practice in out-of-school time (OST) programs that could have profound impacts on other youth serving systems.
Third, we advance the vision for the allied youth fields — the aspirational term that suggests increased alignment, connection, and coordination across the many people and systems that work with and support young people.
Too often, adults who work with young people are siloed into particular systems rather than connected to one another in ways that help them to better support the whole picture of learning and development for young people. The vision of learning and development ecosystems shaped by the science of learning and development necessarily supports adults who work with young people, regardless of where they work or which systems they are situated in.
Finally, we use an equity and justice lens throughout the book — with a recognition that narrow definitions of learning have contributed to existing patterns of inequity.
As we endeavor to envision more interconnected learning and development ecosystems, centering equity and justice is critical to genuinely grapple with and understand the history, contexts, and current realities of existing inequities and ensure that they are not replicated in a new paradigm.
In the coming weeks and months, we are excited to share contributions from chapter authors and examples of ecosystems approaches illustrated in communities around the country. We will highlight these examples through a series of blogs and other virtual events where we hope to continue to expand the conversation about creating more equitable and just learning and development ecosystems that support the allied youth fields and leverage the science of learning and development. We hope you’ll read the book, and join us in the conversation.
