Asherah Adler-Eldridge, Dane Stickney and Milahd Makooi
This blog post is based on the Evidence & Policy article, ‘Drive for equity: the impact of youth-generated evidence on transportation policy’, part of the Evidence & Policy Special Issue: The Role of Youth-Led Research in Policy Change.
On a policy level, life has been hard lately. Certainly, in the United States, we understand that the current administrations’ policy decisions, which have been implemented quickly, harshly and without public comment, have left people shocked and demoralised. Unfortunately, the persistent absurdity produced by sporadic policy decisions has led to widespread desensitisation, creating a sense that defeat is both inevitable and enduring.
We also think that’s the point. At times, governmental officials use the policy process to isolate, intimidate and punish people, encouraging them to withdraw from civic life. There is hope, however, and we find it on deeply local and personal levels by addressing community inequities through intergenerational collectives.
Our Evidence & Policy article, ‘Drive for equity: the impact of youth-generated evidence on transportation policy’, explains how adult educators and teenage students came together to critique, research and reform policies that oversee streets, buses and trains in Denver, Colorado. Our article describes two cases that leveraged youth participatory action research (YPAR), which is framework in which young people lead as researchers, analysts and policy developers.
The first case centers on the story of an eighth-grade teacher whose friend was struck and killed by a driver while walking. In response, students rose to work alongside their teacher to investigate local street safety policies and advocate for stronger pedestrian protections. The young researchers found that local transportation policy heavily favored cars and speed instead of pedestrian access and safety. Together, they shared their emerging findings with local transit leaders and elected officials who subsequently implemented changes to the street like reducing one lane of traffic, adding a bike lane and securing a permanent rideshare station. The students also presented their research with the victim’s family, underscoring the human weight of their work.
Although the precise policy impact is difficult to determine (the changes may have coincided with plans already underway), the experience was nevertheless transformative for the students. As described by 16-year-old co-author Emilleo Moralez-Baldizan, the process fostered a lasting sense of civic empowerment. ‘I’m different after this’, Emilleo reflected. ‘I see the world differently. I know I can make an impact. If I see a problem, I can help find a solution’.
The second case presents high school students’ analysis of how inadequate bus services contributed to higher rates of tardiness. When school officials observed that nearly one-third of students were arriving late each day, disciplinary consequences were implemented. According to a co-author and former student Asherah Adler-Eldridge, these measures only intensified student stress rather than addressing the underlying issue. In a leadership class with her peers, Ash helped reframe the conversation by shifting the focus away from student lateness as an individual failure and toward the reliability of the bus service itself. With this idea in mind and a determination to substantiate this narrative, the students began their research. As a high school serving a large majority of students from feeder neighborhoods, early findings revealed a clear pattern of tardiness originating in areas with limited access to public transit. Building on these insights, the students conducted surveys and interviews with their peers to better understand where students were commuting from and what their daily travel routines were like.
As the idea gained momentum, Ash and her teammates ultimately collaborated with local transit officials, who committed to establishing a new city bus line connecting the school to the previously disconnected feeder neighborhood. Although construction is still underway, Ash viewed the project as a success, particularly because of the students’ direct engagement with adult decision-makers. ‘It felt amazing to have these important adults not only listen to us but tell us we were doing good work, important work’, Ash said. ‘It made us feel like we mattered, like all of the effort mattered’. Now reflecting as a recent college graduate, Ash expresses pride in the work accomplished and in the lasting impact and changes the project set in motion.
We are reminded of the words of friend and mentor JD Mangat, who is both mayor of Lafayette, Colorado, and a middle-school social studies teacher. ‘Look out the window’, Mayor Mangat told us once. ‘Everything you see is controlled by local government. Not the feds. Not the state. Everything you see, the streets, the sidewalks, the buildings, the signs, can be changed at the local level’. In political moments where large government agencies make civic engagement heavy and scary, remember that it doesn’t have to be that way. As civic agents, we can choose to be together in different ways.
Our article describes the power and beauty of working in local ways to make change. At times like this, we suggest forming smaller collectives with specific interests and concerns. In our case, that involved youth and adults, and the outcome was deeply rewarding. Doing this kind of work across age differences is both difficult and easy. Dane offers some tips in the book Transformative Student Voice: A Guide to Classroom Action (Stickney et al., 2025), but the hard part involves getting started. Adult must come ready to share power and be partners not leaders; that involves important self-awareness and restraint. Young people must be brave and willing to be vulnerable both in exploring their own lived experience and in becoming a leader. This can be challenging when meeting new adults. Here, we suggest focusing on crafting community. This can include establishing routines or rituals together (our author team often got dinner together and started Zoom meetings off with silly icebreakers); establishing niche roles for each member (this can be more traditional like a notetaker but also more creative like a chat ninja who may not speak verbally but contributes in the Zoom chat); and craft decision-making approaches (our team leveraged a consensus Love it, hate it, can live with it model to share power throughout the writing and revision process).
The point is that we established processes to listen to each other, both about how we experienced transportation problems but also our creative ideas for solutions, and the process was reciprocally rewarding for the youth and adult authors. Working together, we uncovered the ways systems can be changed. We identified those with power to make change, made an ask, and kept asking. Even if the system doesn’t move in desired ways, we are confident the intergenerational action will be worth it in terms of newfound confidence and connection.
Image credit: Photo by Bansah Photography on Unsplash
Asherah Adler-Eldridge is an alumnus of Denver (Colorado) Public Schools and recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law from Suffolk University in Boston.
Dane Stickney, PhD, is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Colorado Denver and is lead author of Transformative Student Voice: A Guide to Classroom Action published by Harvard Education Press in 2025.
Milahd Makooi is a high-school English teacher in Mapleton (Colorado) Public Schools.
Read the original research in Evidence & Policy:
Stickney, D. Makooi, M. Moralez-Baldizan, E. Adler-Eldridge, A. Cruz, R. & Burns, C. (2026). Drive for equity: the impact of youth-generated evidence on transportation policy. Evidence & Policy. DOI: 10.1332/17442648Y2026D000000081.
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