Brokering Youth Pathways was created to share tools and techniques around the youth development practice of “brokering” or connecting youth to future learning opportunities and resources. Brokering Youth Pathways was produced by Hive Research Lab, an applied research partner of Hive NYC Learning Network —a community of informal educational organizations dedicated to supporting digital learning.
“Brokering” is an important equity-oriented practice that out-of-school-time (OST) educators can take up in support of youth learning and development. Brokering is means of supporting identity development, social capital building and long-term, interest-driven learning across settings through actively connecting program participants to new learning opportunities like out of school programs, internships, events like hack jams and meet-ups, and more. Common brokering practices include: an educator telling a young person about an opportunity and encouraging them to sign up, posting flyers, and organizing a field trip for young people to learn about a new organization or site.
How do we effectively connect youth to new learning experiences? In the network, we came to call this the ‘brokering problem,’ one that was oriented towards supporting long-term and interest-driven youth pathways that spanned multiple contexts.
A set of practice briefs describing practical approaches identified through research that support the process of connecting youth to opportunity through brokering.