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Children - Adolescents 7 -18 Years

Participation

Hearing the Voices of Youth

	Hearing the Voices of Youth:  A Review of Research and Consultation Documents
	Hearing the Voices of Youth:  Youth Participation in Selected Canadian Municipalities"

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada has ratified, states in part that young people should have the right to be involved in and state their opinions in matters which affect them. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child stresses the importance of involving youth in decisions affecting their lives. This is made explicit in the following statement, "States Parties shall assure to the child (0 - 18) who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child."

Consistent with Canada's acceptance of the UNCRC, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has adopted the position that we should ensure that young people have opportunities to participate in decisions about their healthy development. PHAC and other federal departments, governments, institutions, agencies, and professionals are actively seeking to involve youth more in a meaningful manner in decisions affecting policies, programs and services.

However, our knowledge of such programs; which models work, under what circumstances, what are the motivations to begin, what are the barriers, how are they best overcome, what stimulates the development, how can these programs be sustained, who is best to lead, is scant. There has also been little critical examination of the process and the impacts of such involvement. Are Youth truly being empowered? Are we really only reaching the young people who are already active and successful in reaching their goals? Have there been any measurable changes to any of the factors that determine the health and development of children and youth?

PHAC has undertaken several initiatives attempting to involve youth in a meaningful manner, for example; in the design of social marketing campaigns targeted at youth or in determining the needs of youth early in the program planning process through consultations and in focus testing, pretesting and pilot testing programs and policies. Most of these involvements are single episodes and are designed to provide the youth point of view to PHAC staff.

There are however examples of other government departments and agencies involving youth in a manner that develops their leadership ability and develops communication networks. These vary from having youth representation on committees and boards, to having youth advisory committees, to having youth manage their own programs and services with adult support.

The Canadian Mental Health Association has made a significant contribution in this area through its development of a series of booklets which present a useful overview of how to implement youth participation, including a consideration of the barriers and challenges involved. The Youth Participation Jeunesse project is another example of the work already underway. This project was undertaken by the Canadian Coalition on the Rights of the Child. Its goals include developing materials for "trainers" who, in turn, will train youth-serving, non-governmental organisations in how to involve young people in a meaningful way in organisational decision making. Another project was undertaken by the Coalition of Ontario Agencies for School Health. This effort created a province wide inventory of youth-led health promotion projects.

The youth-led health promotion projects sponsored by PHAC and Health Canada represent further examples of existing work on youth participation. The first of these projects was undertaken for Health Canada (Tobacco) by the Canadian Association for School Health. This project focussed on creating an inventory of tobacco use prevention and other health promotion programmes which are youth led. This project included a literature review and the development of an investigative framework as well as an inventory of examples.

The second of these, the Youth Participation in Public Decision Making project which the Canadian Association for School Health undertook for the Public Health Agency of Canada's Division of Childhood and Adolescence is a further example of the work already underway in this area. This project focussed on developing a framework for investigating the effectiveness of youth participation efforts and an in-depth set of interviews and case studies outlining the process, impacts and effectiveness of a limited number of types and settings or youth participation. The results of this work can been seen in the case studies illustrating the findings which are included below.

One of the major challenges identified by young people regarding youth participation was the lack of a systematic and institutionalised way for them to participate in decisions which effect them. Few communities in Canada have an infrastructure which makes youth participation a normal and routine part of day to day operations. In many communities, programmes have been developed which incorporate youth participation as an ideal. Once a programme or project ends, however, the youth participation component also ends. Few systematic, institutionalised opportunities exist for young people to make their concerns known and to participate in the development and delivery of services intended for them.

However, we know that communities and organizations are interested in working with youth and effectively involving them in meaningful decision making processes. According to the Canadian council on Social Development, municipal youth friendly initiatives are growing. Seven of 21 Canadian cities surveyed have a youth advisory committee, up from three of 19 cities surveyed in 1997. Other communities have initiated a variety of other mechanisms which allow youth to participate in the political decision making process and contribute to improving the strength of their communities.

PHAC and Health Canada, in partnership with a variety of national organizations, have initiated an environment scan to identify models of youth participation and using the framework developed earlier assess the impact and effectiveness of these models on the health and development of the young people and their communities. It is the intention of PHAC and Health Canada to make the findings from this study available to communities and organizations wishing to undertake similar initiatives. The committee overseeing this project has youth at the table planning the project.

For more information, contact: children@hc-sc.gc.ca

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