Black and Brown Youth Don’t Lack Voice. They Need Power, Practice and Pathways.

November 2026

By Jimmy Brown, Executive Director, Social Entrepreneur, Community Advocate

Adults often describe young people as disengaged, indecisive, and uninspired. I see something different.

Many Black and Brown youth are paying attention. They know when neighborhoods feel unsafe, when housing instability makes school harder, when mental health support is too far away or not culturally responsive, and when adults invite them to share pain but not power. Listening only to learn how they can benefit from the pain, but not how they can create solutions that solve the root causes of that pain.

The gap is not that young people lack opinions. The gap is that too many have not been given consistent opportunities to build critical consciousness: the ability to understand the conditions shaping their lives, connect those conditions to systems and policy, and practice changing them with others.

That work is not partisan. It is civic. It is structural.

National data shows why this matters. The Nation’s Report Card found that only 22% of eighth graders performed at or above proficient in civics in 2022. CIRCLE at Tufts University has documented a civic opportunity gap, with youth of color and youth from lower-income communities often receiving less access to civic learning that supports participation in public life. Peer-reviewed research on marginalized youth links critical consciousness, political efficacy and supportive adults to civic action.

In plain language: young people are more likely to lead when they understand the system, believe their voice can matter and have real chances to act.

That is where many systems fall short. We ask youth to be resilient, but we do not always teach them how budgets, school boards, city councils, public health systems or community coalitions make decisions. We tell them to avoid violence, but we do not always help them examine the roots of violence. We tell them not to use substances to cope, but we do not always create trusted spaces to talk about trauma, stress and healing. We tell them to vote someday, but we do not always let them practice shared decision-making now and unintentionally place barriers between the impact of their vote and real world implementation by politicizing youth voice instead of humanizing youth experiences in the communities that need to vote.

At Build 2 Lead, our Youth Executive Committee is one response.

The YEC is not a youth panel created for optics. It is a leadership structure designed to move young people from lived experience to research, from research to advocacy, and from advocacy to shared decision-making.

Through King County Cannabis, Commercial Tobacco and Vape prevention-funded work, Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, Black Future Co-Op fund, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation we are listening to youth and young adults about how housing instability, gun violence, youth violence exposure, substance use, mental health challenges and economic barriers shape their mobility. Our YEC survey asks what they are experiencing and what supports would help: mentorship, mental health services, peer groups, tenant supports, job training, civic skills and youth-led campaigns.

That matters because the issues are connected. A young person who fears violence may miss school or work. A young person dealing with unstable housing may struggle to plan for college or employment. A young person using cannabis, tobacco or vaping to cope may also be dealing with grief, stress or untreated mental health needs. If we treat these as separate problems, we will keep building solutions that do not match their lives.

Critical consciousness helps youth name those connections without blaming themselves for conditions they did not create. It also helps them see that they can help change those conditions.

Our work through YEC includes listening sessions, surveys, leadership development, policy learning, community safety conversations, social media campaigns, public speaking, youth-led recommendations and opportunities to engage decision-makers. The goal is not to tell young people what to think. The goal is to help them ask better questions, use data, understand power and move with purpose.

For some youth, that may mean learning how local government responds to violence. For others, it may mean understanding how public health funding works, how to organize a campaign or how to turn a community concern into a policy recommendation.

If Washington wants to reduce youth violence, substance dependency, school disconnection and hopelessness, we cannot wait until youth are in crisis before giving them a voice. We have to build pathways where voice becomes skill and skill becomes shared power.

BIPOC youth do not need adults to save them from their communities. They need adults willing to invest in their ability to analyze and lead within them.

The question is not whether young people care. The question is whether we are willing to build civic infrastructure that proves their voices matter.