Youth Engagement Resources
In 2013, the League released “Engaging Youth In Bicycle Advocacy”, a case study on why youth bike and youth involvement in bicycle advocacy. A lot of the obstacles to youth engagement noted in the study, like a lack of bike accessibility and a disconnect between adults and youth when it comes to leadership, are still prevalent today.
Many organizations, including the League itself, can better educate themselves on how to not only get more youth involved in biking but make sure young bicyclists feel recognized as an integral part of the bicycling movement
Read "Engaging Youth In Bicycle Advocacy" for more on engaging teens in an advocacy conversation.
Engaging Youth In Urban Biking And Bike Share
Using the case study of Philadelphia’s Indego bike share program, this toolkit explores the relationship between bike share programs and youth in cities, providing stories, inspiration, and guidance for other cities.
The City of Philadelphia’s bike share program, Indego, has made equity, diversity, and inclusion central priorities thanks to support from the Better Bike Share Partnership, made possible by the JPB Foundation.
Engaging Youth At The National Bike Summit
The League offers a Youth Scholarship granting free virtual attendance to the National Bike Summit for those age 21 or younger.
At the National Bike Summit, as part of our youth-dedicated programming, we invite youth-led and youth-serving organizations and bike clubs to converse and share ideas on getting more children and youth on bikes and involved in shaping better places to ride throughout the country. Youth attendees come to share their thoughts on what would get more of their peers on bikes and youth-serving organizations have the opportunity to listen and learn how to integrate the youth perspective into their programs.
What More Can We Do To Engage Youth?
Create more programs where youth can have hands-on experience, such as Free Bikes 4 Kidz where youth are working on repairing bicycles and are helping those who need bikes get them at no charge. When kids can see the impact of their work and advocacy it keeps them engaged, connected to the community and to the work. It gives them a sense of control and empowerment.
- Atlanta Students Advocating for Pedestrians (ASAP)
From our experience, youth want to ride bikes but can’t afford one. Maybe figuring out more ways for non-profit organizations to be able to buy bikes for youth who want to ride. One way we can get more recognized is to bring bikers to the table when it comes to decision making and not just make us an afterthought.
Give youth a starting point for engaging in advocacy. Events like the Youth Bike Summit are great for that.