“We Know About Things Too”: Exploring the Labors of Love Involved in Cultivating Youth Voice in Online Youth Civic Engagement Programs With Youth of Color

Abstract

Online youth civic engagement programs are often designed to support the cultivation of youth voice, yet working with youth of color who are particularly skeptical of civic life takes a certain form of labor that often remains unexamined in the scholarship of youth civic engagement. Drawing on concepts of invisible, emotional, and relational labor and the work of critical race theory (CRT), this article examines what is often termed the “labor of love” that characterizes the behind-the-scenes work. Utilizing a critical ethnographic approach, we identify three stages in the labor of love involved in cultivating youth voice in five different online youth civic engagement programs as we sought to highlight youth voice, perspective, and expertise with local policymakers. We argue that the behind-the-scenes invisible, emotional, and relational labor needs to be better understood to address the barriers youth of color face in relation to gaining full access to democratic participation.