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Articles

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2021): Journal of Leadership, Equity, and Research

Ignite The Leader Within: Virtual Latinx Youth Empowerment And Community Leadership Amid Covid-19

Submitted
April 27, 2021
Published
2021-04-27

Abstract

Summer Youth Programs continue to grow as a way to provide alternative educational spaces for Youth of Color who are often framed in deficit ways and that position them as being “at-risk” or in need of assistance (Weiner, 2006; Brown, 2016). To address these perceived deficits, after school and summer programs have been created and funded to serve the needs of children and Youth of Color, in particular Latinxs and African Americans. The literature often centralizes a pathologizing narrative that Youth of Color need saving (Tuck, 2009) via Summer Youth Programs to “keep youth off the streets” and avoid delinquency (Baldridge, 2014). Recent scholarship points to the necessity to interrogate the underlying racialized discourse that permeates through summer youth programming towards one that acknowledges and centers youth agency, resiliency, and identity. This article presents findings from a study of Latinx youth that participated in a summer youth program hosted virtually through collaboration with the Prevention and Early Intervention Division of the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services, and two universities in Central Texas. Due to COVID-19, the summit was re-imagined virtually and strives to build and nurture a community of youth leaders. This qualitative study also examines and evaluates Latinx youth participants’ (ages 13 to 18) expectations of and experiences in the virtual summer youth summit.  Our study questions included: 1) How do Latinx youth learn about leadership through an Online Youth Summit amidst COVID-19? And 2) How does the Youth Summit provide a (virtual) space to re-narrate Latinx youth leadership? Emerging findings indicate that Latinx youth were given opportunities to re-narrate leadership and activism, co-create networks and virtual connections with other Latinx and Black youth, and reflect on their own identities and community involvements.