Young people on the margins: What works in youth participation (original) (raw)

Everyday youth participation? Contrasting views from Australian policymakers and young people

Young, 2010

Youth participation, as a form of consultation within policymaking processes in Australia, has been largely critiqued for its reliance on formal participation mechanisms that are rarely inclusive or representative of a range of young people's experiences. This article shows that policymakers who are critical of formal methods of youth participation can identify contemporary effective practice and believe initiatives ought to be youth-led, purposeful, provide feedback and be creative and fun. Thus, there is a new awareness by policymakers of the effectiveness of integrating young people's everyday perspectives into participation. Similarly, it was found that participation and active involvement in decision making was meaningful for young people when it was youth-led, fun and informal, and based on relevant, everyday issues rather than complex policy processes. So why has youth participation remained static and focused mainly on new formal initiatives? To examine this contrast in views and practices, the article presents fi ndings from four discussion groups convened with senior government and community policymakers and a qualitative examination of both marginalized young people's understanding of youth participation mechanisms and their capacity to infl uence policymaking that affected their everyday lives.

Creating Benefit for All Young people, engagement and public policy

The Youth Engaged Policy (YEP) project brought together 100 young people and policy practitioners (‘policy makers’) from across Australia to investigate: how ‘youth engagement’ is understood; barriers and enablers of engagement; and, to develop a framework to underpin cultures and practices of engagement in federal policy processes.

Youth policy and participation

Children and Youth Services Review, 2009

Over the past two decades, in several Northern and Western European Union countries responsibility for general youth policy has been transferred from the central government to the local level of municipalities. In this transformation process the local authorities, guided by central government's advice, have decided to give the participation of children and young people in policy decision-making an unprecedented policy prominence. In the Netherlands, as in the UK, youth's participation in policy decision-making was linked to the idea of fostering among young people a greater commitment to democracy. Democratic citizenship became the new pedagogical ideal. This evaluation study of youth policy in 25 municipalities shows the discrepancies between democratic ideals and youth's participation in practice. Most local authorities only pay lip service to the idea of engaging young people in the democratic process. Full participation and the creation of a culture of participation remain exceptional.

The Changing Context of Australian Youth and Its Implications for Social Inclusion

Youth Studies Australia, 2009

The proceedings are aimed at fostering, informing and stimulating public reflection, discussion, debate, research, and policy initiatives to address one of the central challenges facing contemporary Australian governments, industries and communities. They are published on the Brotherhood of St Laurence's website at: http://www.bsl.org.au/main.asp?PageId=6175 These proceedings were edited by Annelies Kamp with assistance from Arnaud Gallois. Assistance with online publication by Kristine Philipp.

What matters to young Australians: exploring young people's perspectives from 2010-2018

2020

About the Whitlam Institute The Whitlam Institute is building a nationally significant institution delivering distinctive, bold and inspiring policy research and programs that promote common ground, inclusive national identity and civic engagement for all Australians. We seek to be recognised across the political spectrum as delivering a nation-building agenda. "...help the great and continuing work of building a more equal, open, tolerant and independent Australia. " Gough Whitlam 2010 For more information about the Whitlam Institute, please visit our website whitlam.org Cover photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash collection. This was no easy task and many techniques had to be trialled in an effort to extract insights from the diverse ways young people write and express their ideas. Western Sydney University Summer Intern, Rachel Rae, helped advance the project through initial interview analysis and experimentation with topic analysis. We are also indebted to Whitlam Institute staff who assisted with various administrative aspects from coordinating recruitment for interviews to digitisation of the corpus and publication of this report. We also thank Dr Nukte Ogun who provided editorial advice on the final report.