DYUR Toolkit
The Declaration of Youth Universal Rights, turned into practice.
DYUR is a rights-based practice and assessment framework that helps organizations examine whether safety, belonging, autonomy, care, and housing stability are reflected in policy, daily practice, and youth experience.
What DYUR is
The Declaration of Youth Universal Rights translates a set of rights into observable organizational practices and youth-reported experiences. It is not a checklist of intentions. It pairs a written policy review with a youth-facing experience index so that what staff say is happening can be compared to what young people actually live.
DYUR is designed for schools, shelters, drop-in centers, clinics, and youth-serving programs. It is intended for cross-role teams, including young people, frontline staff, supervisors, and leadership.
The five rights categories
Click any category to expand the rights it carries. These five categories drive every item in the DYUR assessment.
Two assessment pathways
Stakeholders can complete one pathway or both. Completing both enables an alignment check between organizational policy and youth experience.
For organizations
Organizational Self-Assessment
25 items across the five rights categories. Each item is scored 0 to 3, producing category subtotals out of 15, a total out of 75, and an Org Index on a 0 to 3 scale.
Begin Organizational AssessmentFor young people
Youth Experience Index
20 items across the five rights categories. Each item is scored 0 to 3, producing category subtotals out of 12, a total out of 60, and a Youth Experience Index on a 0 to 3 scale.
Begin Youth Experience IndexAccountability interpretation
Quality threshold
Any index below 2.0 signals that rights are not reliably embedded. Org index below 2.0 flags structural reform; youth index below 2.0 flags lived rights gaps.
Alignment gap
When both pathways are complete, the gap between Org Index and Youth Experience Index reveals policy illusion, staff heroics, structural neglect, or integrated rights.
Triage prioritization
Any rights category with a subscore below 2.0 is surfaced as a priority area in the results panel.
Action recommendations
Recommended actions are tiered as quick practice fixes, operational redesign, and structural investment, drawn from the DYUR Action Guide.
Ready to begin
Choose a pathway on the next screen. You can move between categories, clear responses, download results, print results, or email a copy to yourself.
What DYUR Looks Like in Practice: Jordan's Story
Educational scenario. Not part of scoring.
Jordan is a 17-year-old transgender young person who arrives at a shelter intake desk after spending three nights unsheltered. They are tired and hungry, and they are carrying uncertainty about whether it is safe to share their name or their pronouns with the people working at the desk.
Right to Safety, Access, and Non-Discrimination
The intake worker uses the name printed on Jordan's ID without asking whether there is another name Jordan goes by. The intake area does not display any information about client rights or protected categories. Jordan moves through the intake process without knowing whether gender identity is covered under the shelter's policies or who to contact if a problem arises during their stay. The process continues as though these questions have no bearing on the interaction.
The intake worker asks Jordan what name to use before looking at any document. A non-discrimination policy is posted at the front desk and explicitly names gender identity and housing status as protected categories. Jordan receives this information before the intake process begins rather than after a problem occurs. The intake worker follows this policy as a standard part of how every person who comes through the door is greeted.
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