Community-based youth work takes place in a variety of settings, including after-school programs, youth-serving organizations, and other out-of-school learning environments. These spaces are often celebrated for supporting young people academically, socially, culturally, and politically. However, the complexity of these community-based educational spaces is often overlooked in education research – they exist within broader social and political systems shaped by race, economic inequality, and education policy, and these structural forces influence how youth programs operate and how youth workers engage with young people.