What is youth participation?

Youth participation is often used interchangeably with the term 'active involvement'. This means more than simply taking part in an activity. It refers specifically to the involvement in the process of identifying needs, exploring solutions, making decisions and planning action within communities and organisations that seek to support civil society.
In relation to young people, youth participation is often regarded as the involvement of young people in decisions that are made that affect them. However many people believe that young people should be treated as citizens now (as opposed to the citizens of the future) and should be involved in all decisions that are made about the community and society in which they live.

Why have youth participation?

These are the most commonly stated reasons for involving young people actively in decision-making:

• it is young people's right to be involved and have their voice heard in decisions that will impact on them. This right is enshrined in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, article 12;
• participation of all citizens is essential to a healthy democratic society. This obviously includes the participation of young people. This is a particularly relevant reason given the context of declining engagement of young people with traditional political processes (only 39% of young voters going to the polls in 2001);
• improved, better targeted and more effective services and projects. By involving young people in the planning and management, services can remain relevant and effective as they are based on young people's reality as opposed to a professional's perceptions; and
• skills development for young people. Young people (in fact any people) can gain a huge amount of confidence from seeing their opinions and experiences valued and directly contribute to positive change in their community. Many skills are also developed which can directly lead to improved educational performance and better prospects of gaining employment in the future.

What role can voluntary organisations play?

Here are two main ways in which voluntary organisations can encourage youth participation:

• internally, ensuring that young people are listened to and involved in decision making and planning within their own organisations; and
• externally, supporting the young people that they work with to engage with public decision making and address issues that are of concern to them.

This is a particularly relevant role for voluntary organisations as they often have an established relationship of trust with the young people which is an essential basis upon which to explore these issues. Secondly, they have an independence from government which can be useful when supporting young people to take forward controversial issues.