What Is Youth Participation? - Youth Work Q & A

Q: What is youth participation and how can I avoid ‘non-participation’ when working with youth?

A: This is a great question. We love youth participation (also called youth empowerment) because it encourages organizations to consider all their stakeholders, not just the ones with the money or power.

Previously, we outlined youth participation and the three camps adults fall in to when it comes to dealing with youth. We also discussed Roger Hart’s ‘Ladder of Participation’. There are other models of participation, one of which is Phil Tresder’s from ‘Empowering Children and Young People’ (1997). He identifies degrees of youth participation as having young people be:

Consulted about the process and informed about the outcomes
Assigned projects but informed so they can choose to participate
Sharing decisions with adults but the project is adult-initiated
Able to initiate the project but also share decisions with adults
Able to initiate and direct all aspects of the project

These degrees of youth participation may happen in stages over time. You may need to work with your young people, teach them new things and move through a few stages of group development before they are prepared to initiate and direct projects. But, we contend that from the outset when working with youth, that should be your aim. Empower them. Allow and encourage them to participate fully.

7 top tips for encouraging youth participation:

Question: What are your top tips for avoiding non-participation? Do you have a focus on youth participation in your youth project? Share your tips and stories in the comments below.

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