Youth Participation and Myths Related to It

Jennifer L. O'Donogue, Benjamin Kirshner, Milbrey McLaughlin. Moving Youth Participation Forward/Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, 2002, #96. 

In the past several decades, the concept of youth participation has become a hot topic. Today, it is an international phenomenon occurring in multiple settings and on various levels. Youth participation has been linked to organizational sustainability and effectiveness, as long as to national economic and political development. However, there is a lot of confusion about what youth participation means, what it looks like, and what it involves. 

The most common definitions is as follows: "Youth participation is a set of activities that empower adolescents to take part in and influence decision making that affects their lives and to take actions on issues they care about".

The paradox regarding youth participation is that despite its presence on different levels all around the world, young people often have to struggle to convince adults they have rights to engage in organizational and public decision making and action. For that, a clear understanding of youth participation is required, which is often challenged by common myths. 

Myths

1. Youth participation is accomplished by placing one youth on a board or committee
2. Youth participation means that adults surrender their roles as guides and educators
3. Adults are ready for youth participation
4. Youth are ready to participate

My comments on the above myths

The author raises a very interesting topic of preparedness of both the youth and adults to youth participation. Adults need ongoing training on how to support youth and how to serve as adult allies. Youth participation is not an independent process free of a certain level of control. It needs to be guided and directed by adults. Though this at times also seems to be rather challenging, because the role of adults as guides and educators is not well defined.  At the same time, youth also need ongoing training. It does not mean that they need to train now and participate later. Rather, they need domain specific skills. For example, if they want to participate in program evaluation, they need training on research methods. If they want to be engaged in decision making, they need training on public speaking, etc. 


When it comes to involving youth in organizational and public matters, it is very important to avoid two risks: "decoration" and exclusivity. The former means that today many school boards and city councils have created space for youth representatives, but in reality young people might not even have a chance to effect change in the world or to speak up. Thus they become just a "decoration". As for exclusivity, it means that selecting several people to represent a larger community might lead to a risk of choosing only the most privileged and skilled young people. 

The above myths represent key barriers to youth participation and raise a number of questions: Are adults fully prepared for youth participation? Are youth ready to take on roles as decision makers? Are adults ready to perceive youth as "actual people" ready to effect change in the world?