We're asking for you to share with us your stories of meaningful youth participation happening in your organisation - but what do we actually mean by this?!
Let's start with some definitions and explanations of what the different terms mean:
- Youth participation is about young people being able to make decisions on issues that affect their lives and communities.
- Meaningful youth participation builds on this and means that young people are considered the experts in their own lives, are informed, empowered, safe and valued when they participate.
Youth participation can exist at all levels of the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Movement, it can take place in relation to big decisions or small decisions, from local group level to programme design and delivery right through to MO and global governance.
Note: when using the terms 'youth’ and ‘young people' we are including both girls under the age of 18 and young women up to the age of 30.
Meaningful youth participation can happen when there is…
- A culture that supports youth participation;
- Opportunities for young people to participate;
- Principles in place to ensure the opportunities offered are meaningful.
The stories we're focusing a bit more on collecting are those opportunities that the Movement is creating for youth participation to happen, so let’s now look at these in a bit more detail...
The opportunities for participation that we see happening most in Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting are:
| Consultation | Young people are asked for their input to inform decisions made by adults. | For example, adult leaders ask young people what the theme of their next camp should be |
| Collaboration | Young people and adults work together and make decisions side-by-side. | For example, young people work with adults to design activities taking place at the camp |
| Youth-Led | Young people make decisions at all stages of a process, adults may support this, but it is driven by young people. | For example, young people make up the majority of the camp organising committee and lead the decision-making processes |
We are looking for your stories of young people being empowered through being able to participate in decision-making in some way in your organisation – whether that be through consultation, collaboration or youth-led initiatives!
If you have a story you want to share you can complete this form: https://campfire.wagggs.org/form/meaningful-youth-participation-s and always feel free to reach out to [email protected] for your Meaningful Youth Participation questions.