Are We Listening? Redefining ‘Youth Empowerment’

On International Youth Day, lessons from Washington’s youth homelessness success reveal why investing in young people is essential to our future.

Gen Z is often misunderstood. 

Recent research shows that Gen Z Americans are more likely than all other generations to say that the country is on the wrong track, with 72% rating the economy negatively. Their concern is valid; we’re living in an era of escalating crises such as climate change, housing affordability, and eroding civic trust.  Instead of asking young people to adapt to systems that weren’t designed by or for them, it’s time for the philanthropic sector to invest in systems change that addresses the root causes of these challenges. 

Media narratives tend to fixate on stereotypes, painting this generation as entitled. But if you look past the headlines, there’s something extraordinary about these young people. Even in the face of daunting challenges, they show resilience and insist that we rise to meet the moment. With 1.8 billion young people in the world representing our largest generation in history and Gen Z already making up over 18% of the U.S. workforce, how we set them up to lead will significantly impact the health and future of our world. 

Authentically empowering young people starts with seeing them as partners in shaping the future. When we engage with young people as co-creators rather than passive recipients of solutions, we unlock fresh ideas, grounded perspectives, and strategies that truly resonate. 

In the state of Washington, I have witnessed how the wisdom of young people can unlock previously unimagined paths to support services. Researchers estimate that every year in the United States, 4.2 million young people experience homelessness, including 700,000 unaccompanied minors. If this comes as a surprise, that’s because youth homelessness is often referred to as the “invisible” population, opting to couch surf, stay with friends, or live out of their car and out of the public’s eye. Research also shows that nearly 50% of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced it as a young person, reminding us that what happens in our youth can significantly shape our life trajectory.

In 2015, advocacy by a youth-led coalition of service providers, nonprofits, and community members led to the creation of the Office of Homeless Youth (OHY) in Washington. The first of its kind, OHY is a state agency that guides policies and administers funding for homeless youth and young adults. We collaborated across sectors—with private funders like the Raikes Foundation, as well as state, county, and local civic leaders—to meaningfully fund their efforts. We elevated preventing and ending youth homelessness as a statewide priority. From the beginning, OHY used data and personal testimony from young people with lived expertise to determine how that money was spent.

The results speak for themselves: a 40% drop in unaccompanied youth homelessness over six years, which translates to 10,000 more young people annually having a safe and stable place to call home. Students experiencing homelessness saw their graduation rates increase by 37%. Young people leaving foster care, behavioral health, and juvenile justice systems were 29% more likely to find stable housing. Also astonishing are the results we’re seeing from the Homelessness Prevention and Diversion Fund, a public-private partnership piloted in Washington. Through the program’s use of diversion funding (to help people quickly access alternative housing arrangements outside of the emergency shelter system), 93% of young people who received funding retained their housing after a year, at half the cost of providing a shelter bed. This shows us what’s possible when we co-create solutions with young people. 

Listening to young leaders made it clear that our systems work better when we focus on prevention. To break generational cycles, we combined flexible funding with systems change. The economic case is evident: investments in prevention are cost-effective. Every dollar invested upstream, including in areas such as mental health support, substantially reduces the need for costly interventions later on. By combining deep analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, leaders built a new infrastructure around young people’s needs rather than imposing historical practices on them. Instead of constant crisis interventions, counties across Washington now offer early support and flexible funding programs. These programs are low-barrier, enabling people to request flexible funding, connect to local services that address obstacles to housing stability, and potentially avoid homelessness altogether.

Yet the importance of maintaining this momentum is at serious risk due to ongoing federal funding cuts. These losses are not abstract—they translate into fewer supports to help a young person stay at home, including opportunities to seek help, trusted adults able to step in, and chances for young people in our communities to find stability. Closing these gaps will require partners who can act quickly and creatively to sustain proven solutions—and this is where philanthropy can step in.

We can lead the way by funding youth-led innovation that doesn’t fit traditional models, exemplified by the coalition created by OHY. Philanthropy has the flexibility to make long-term bets, fund upstream solutions, and assume the risk of innovation so that public partners can join us and help scale solutions.

In practice, this means investing early and consistently, especially in prevention strategies. It means standing with young people through cultural backlash and political retrenchment. It means using our voice, capital, and networks to shift policy and public will, in addition to providing financial support. 

The progress we’ve seen in Washington state is because private and public partners worked together to fund youth organizing infrastructure and embedded youth voice in policy design. That’s how we prepare young people for civic leadership, not just job markets, and build a democracy together that they’re proud to inherit.

Young people are showing up every day. They’re organizing, creating mutual-aid groups, and leading movements. They’re not waiting for us to hand them a better world. They’re creating it. 

Helping them succeed will require us to trust young people with the power to shape their futures. On this International Youth Day, the question isn’t whether young people are ready to lead. The question is: Are we listening? Are we resourcing them? Are we building alongside them?

Tricia Raikes is the co-founder of the Raikes Foundation and a longtime advocate for youth and systems change. She serves on the Stanford Graduate School of Education Advisory Council and has spent more than two decades working to create opportunities for young people to thrive.