The USAID-funded YouthPower Learning project awarded 17 Learning Grants over the period of 2016-2019. There were four grant cycles, each focused on one of the four different themes:

1. The first focused on efforts to assess, evaluate, document, and disseminate innovative work in positive youth development (PYD) and cross-sectoral youth programming;

2. The second focused on advancing the evidence base for gender-transformative positive youth development;

3. The third focused on advancing the evidence base for youth civic engagement in effective peacebuilding or in countering / prevention of violent extremism; 

4. The fourth was the Young Women Transform Prize, which focused on capturing approaches to improve young women’s economic opportunities. 

The grants funded a range of learning activities around PYD initiatives, from research studies and community campaigns, to documentation of project implementation. These activities illustrate different ways that youth-serving organizations can leverage and support youth leadership within PYD programs by partnering with youth as decision-makers, experts, researchers, advocates, mentors and peer coaches, and as participants with a voice in defining the success of the program. Citing examples from the YPL grants, this brief describes each of these forms of youth engagement and encourages practitioners and policymakers to learn and expand on these efforts to strengthen youth leadership in PYD programs.