Youth leader surrounded by poor mites is put in an awkward situation (6)
I believe the answer is:
stymie
'put in an awkward situation' is the definition.
'stymie' can be an answer for 'situation' (stymie is a kind of situation). I'm not sure about the 'put in an awkward' bit.
'youth leader surrounded by poor mites' is the wordplay.
'youth leader' becomes 'y' (I've seen this in other clues).
'surrounded by' is an insertion indicator.
'poor' is an anagram indicator.
'mites' is an anagram of 'stmie'.
'y' placed into 'stmie' is 'STYMIE'.
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stymie that I've seen before include "balk" , "Hinder the progress of (something)" , "Obstruction (originally at golf)" , "'Hinder, obstruct (6)'" , "Thwart - block - my site (anag)" .)