Unleashing Youth Creativity in Times of COVID: Reflections from a Collaborative Research Project

Summary

Creativity during the COVID-19 crisis became a lifeline for youth who otherwise would have been disconnected and isolated due to policies that impaired their ability to connect with their communities and each other. Confident Futures, a collaborative research program, observed and collaborated with nine community organizations in New York City and Amsterdam to learn from youth workers who became (re)activated, engaged, and innovative with each other during this public health crisis. This paper reflects on the ethnographic learnings from this effort during the global pandemic, which revealed how long-standing community youth organizations in cities across the Atlantic cultivated essential supportive networks. They also employed creative resources that strengthened young people’s ability to withstand the familiar impacts of structural violence. Our research sought to “capture the magic” of how and why youth can thrive despite the oppressive forces that shape them daily.