Book Review—At Our Best: Building Youth–Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Settings

Abstract

Gretchen Brion-Meilsels, Jessica Tseming Fei, and Deepa Sriya Vasduevan’s At Our Best: Building Youth–Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Settings brings together the work of over 50 youth and adults to build a youth–adult partnership praxis centered around ideas of trust, problem-solving methodologies, democratic participation, and collective action. The book, focusing on youth–adult partnerships for the purpose of social change, explores a set of field-expanding questions such as, “What do youth–adult partnerships look like in practice?” and “What are the relational and organizational practices that enable youth–adult partnerships to exist?” In addition to youth workers and youth development organizations, other groups of adults would benefit from reading the chapters’ rich exploration of dilemmas and strategies, such as funders, K-12 educators, and evaluators. Ultimately, this book honors young people and youth workers as important actors in social change and elevates the importance of their joint efforts. The deep relationship between youth work and a strong democracy clearly emerges, challenging us all to be “at our best.”