Here is a collection of links to organizations that may benefit youth-driven democracy in the United States.
Youth-Driven Orgs
Youth-Driven, socially-focused organizations to learn from:
- Child Friendly Cities (CFC) – A UNICEF initiative on youth involvement throughout communities.
- Youth Activism Project – A non-partisan organization to encourage young people to take action on what they care about.
- The Freechild Project – Connects young people to social change efforts around the world.
- SoundOut – Promotes student voice in schools through training and resources.
- TakingITGlobal – 100,000 young people around the world in vibrant discussions about technology, involvement, and democracy.
- Teens as Community Builders – Young people across the United States doing positive things to improve their communities.
- Voices of Youth – Encourages young people around the world to become positively involved in their communities.
- What Kids Can Do – Features stories from young people worldwide who are leading community and school change projects.
- Youth Voice and Engagement – A web portal with hundreds of publications, programs and other tools.
- National Collaboration for Youth – The longest-standing coalition of national organizations committed to advocating with and on behalf of youth and, in particular, in research-driven “positive youth development”.
- SparkAction – An online journalism and advocacy center by and for the child and youth field.
- Ready by 21 – The flagship project of The Forum for Youth Investment helps leaders build broader partnerships, set bigger goals, collect and use better data, take bolder actions
Other Orgs
National Human Services Assembly – The Assembly bridges brands, bureaucracies, and the whole life span to improve the collective voice and impact of the sector.
Have a link to share? Submit it in the comments below!
National Youth Union 
A great collection! Could you add SparkAction.org and Readyby21.org to the list?
SPARKACTION
As an online journalism and advocacy center by and for the child and youth field, SparkAction’s site and e-newsletters aim to:
– Connect concerned adults and young people—whether they’re new to the issues or already activists—to compelling stories, context and accurate information on children’s issues, as well as tools to take action, from volunteering to advocating for better policies and programs.
– Help child- and youth-focused organizations effectively reach a broad audience (the public, professional peers, and policymakers) with their content and materials.
– Elevate the voices and perspectives of young people themselves.
– Break down silos in the broad child and youth field and strengthen connections among organizations and agencies to create a stronger, unified voice for children and youth.
SparkAction gives visitors stories, information and tools to learn about a range of issues and to take action to improve policies and programs, and, ultimately, the fabric of our nation as a whole.http://sparkaction.org
READY BY 21:
Ready by 21 is the flagship project of The Forum for Youth Investment (Karen Pittman, CEO).
In communities around the country, leaders are developing approaches to reach the goal of having all youth ready. Still, far too few youth in America are ready, too few communities are providing youth enough quality supports, and too many leaders are not working together effectively.
Ready by 21 provides clear standards to achieve collective impact, tools and solutions to help leaders make progress, and ways to measure and track success along the way. Specifically, Ready by 21 helps leaders: build broader partnerships, set bigger goals, collect and use better data, take bolder actions
It can take years to improve child and youth outcomes on a large scale. But leaders can quickly make demonstrable changes in their capacity, creating the shared accountability needed to chart and stay the course to improve the odds for children and youth. Ready by 21 focuses on building this leadership capacity in states and communities.