New report on young people's participation in planning and urban regeneration

Ecorys, a U.K. research firm, in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, have just published a report documenting their study of existing research on youth participation in planning and urban regeneration in the U.K. The authors examined a range of participation practices and determined that the most successful practices had a number of factors in common:

1. Official recognition of children’s fundamental rights;
2. Broad-based and inclusive partnerships;
3. Political and cultural sensitivity;
4. "Child-friendly" planning processes and structures;
5. Support from skilled intermediaries;
6. A range of participation methods;
7. Understanding participation as a process of learning and change;
8. Openness and reciprocal learning between children and adults;
9. An incremental and realistic approach;
10. Visibility in the results; and
11. Embedding at different levels and spatial scales.

Authentic Youth Civic Engagement: A Guide for Municipal Leaders

This resource is not exactly new--it came out in 2010. But it is an excellent guide for city leaders seeking to engage young people in the United States. The primary author is Cindy Carlson, who has directed Hampton, Virginia's Coalition for Youth. Hampton is probably the most well-known example in the U.S. of successful integration of youth into city and community decision-making. The guide is designed to assist local officials in taking four key steps to successfully engage young people:

• Develop a climate that is welcoming and inviting to youth;
• Develop an infrastructure that supports meaningful youth participation;
• Create a range of meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in local government; and
• Build youth-adult partnerships to support youth participation.

The guide contains a number of tools local leaders can use to begin and enhance their efforts at meaningful youth civic participation.

Authentic Youth Civic Engagement: A Guide for Municipal Leaders

InvolveYouth, Toronto

InvolveYouth is a campaign launched by the City of Toronto, Ontario, in January 2004 to encourage community-based organizations to involve young people in decision-making. The campaign includes a major citywide advertising campaign as well as training sessions for organizations interested in youth participation.

InvolveYouth has developed a guide to involving youth in decision-making called "InvolveYouth: A guide to involving youth in decision-making." You can download a PDF version of the guide, order a hard copy and check out some of InvolveYouth's workshops on the City of Toronto website.

Resource: The Institute on Youth, Education and Families at the National League of Cities

I haven't come across any participation-related news items or events in the last few days, so I thought I would post another good resource I've found. The Institute on Youth, Education and Families (IYEF) at the National League of Cities provides assistance to city leaders (in the U.S.) in a number of areas, including early childhood education, job training, after school programs, support for disconnected youth and K-12 education. Most relevant to the subject of this blog, however, is IYEF's work on youth master planning and youth participation in local government.

Youth master planning, according to the IYEF website, is:

"a process in which city leaders bring together various constituencies--including young people, the school district, parents, businesses, and others--to engage in a process of gathering and using information to establish a set of priorities for the community at large. Based on those priorities, specific action steps are established to improve the lives of children, young people, and families in that community."

A youth master plan would include an assessment of a community's needs and assets with respect to youth, and specific goals and strategies for utilizing the assets and meeting the needs. Young people are very involved in developing youth master plans, which presumably encourages them to stay involved once the plans are completed.

IYEF also provides assistance to cities in promoting youth voice in local government. Among the strategies suggested are establishing a youth advisory council, hosting a youth summit, conducting youth mapping projects and appointing young people to local boards and commissions.

The YEF Institute also hosts the Youth Policy Advisors Network (YPAN), which helps local leaders promote youth participation in local government by sharing resources, research, tools and strategies, policies and best practices.

Finally, IYEF hosts "YouthScape," a website designed to help youth leaders who are active in local government to share their experiences and learn from one another.

Institute on Youth, Education and Families

Youth Participation Advisors Network

YouthScape