Building Political Homes for Youth
Authors: Sara Suzuki, Seona Maskara, Ruby Belle Booth, Alberto Medina
Contributors: Sarah Burnham, Eva Kroh
A political home is a space where young people can imagine, participate in, and build a better future, grounded in relationships built on accountability with each other and with supportive adults. Political homes allow youth to learn, grow, exercise their civic potential, and be a part of collective action-taking. A strong political home can set youth on a trajectory of sustained, healthy civic engagement and democratic belonging throughout their lifetime.
Our research reveals that political homes are essential infrastructure for youth civic development, yet are severely lacking. Only 24% of youth ages 18-34 feel like they are part of a group or movement that will work together to express their views politically. This lack of belonging has profound consequences: young people with access to political homes demonstrate significantly higher levels of civic action (20 percentage points higher) and civic self-efficacy compared to their peers without such access. Moreover, political homes appear to buffer against the mental health costs of political engagement; youth who have strong political home connections maintain their well-being even as political involvement increases.
Drawing on insights from CIRCLE research, and from the wisdom and approaches of community organizers, this report develops a framework for youth political homes that is aimed at addressing those interconnected problems. We also share a toolkit that leaders and organizations can use to evaluate their work and improve their organizations' ability to serve as political homes for young people.
Through qualitative interviews with organizational leaders we identified five core elements that define effective political homes for young people:
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Space for Belonging: Belonging creates the "home" in political home by providing a space where young people connect over shared values, beliefs, and lived experiences, forming deep friendships and lifelong relationships that extend beyond formal programming.
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Developing Political Identity: Political homes equip youth with agency to create change by providing the motivation, knowledge, and civic skills needed to participate in democracy and address issues affecting their communities.
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Meeting Basic Needs: Political homes enable equitable youth participation by providing safe "third spaces" and addressing resource barriers that prevent engagement, food, financial compensation, and transportation to youth.
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Preparing for Life and Career: Political homes leverage the overlap between civic and career skills to support youth beyond political work, providing college application support, financial aid guidance, and professional skill development that prepare young people for future success.
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Developing Youth Voices: Whether young people can use their voice is often the critical difference between an organization where young people are merely part of the membership versus a political home.
Few organizations can excel across all five elements of a political home due to resource and capacity constraints. That means an ecosystem approach is needed: rather than expecting a single organization to meet every need, communities should cultivate networks of complementary political homes that together provide comprehensive support for youth civic development. As our democracy faces unprecedented challenges and young people search for belonging in an increasingly isolated world, political homes represent a promising framework for addressing both crises simultaneously.
