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Selected Case Studies of Youth Involvement in Public Decision-Making

Prepared by Douglas S. McCall,
Centre on Community and School Health
Canadian Association for School Health for the Division of Childhood and Adolescence

Acknowledgments

The Canadian Association for School Health gratefully acknowledges the support of the Division of Childhood and Adolescence enabling the Association to report on these examples of youth involvement in public decision-making.

About the Canadian Association for School Health

The Canadian Association for School Health (CASH) is a federation of 12 provincial/territorial coalitions that promote the use of a coordinated and comprehensive approach to health promotion that uses the school as a strategic site within the community to reach children and youth as well as adults. The Association promotes cooperative efforts among the school, the home and the community in a framework for action called Comprehensive School Health (CSH). The employees of Shannon & McCall Consulting Ltd. act as the staff for the Association. The national office of the Association is located at 2835 Country Woods Drive, Surrey, BC, V4P 9P9, Telephone (604) 535-7664 Fax (604) 531-6454, E-mail dmccall@netcom.ca

About the Centre for Community and School Health

The Centre is affiliated with the Canadian Association for School Health and brings together researchers and others to examine and disseminate research related to schools, parents, youth, agencies and communities working together to promote the healthy development of children and youth as well as adults who work within and with school systems. The Centre has an extensive collection of selected documents on health issues and strategies for health promotion of children and youth. An abstract database describing those documents is available on the Internet on a subscription basis. Recent research projects undertaken by the centre include heart health, school readiness, student health indicators, nutrition, youth-led health promotion and AIDS prevention.

List of Case Studies

The following sites were identified in consultation with Health Canada officials and agreed to participate in this study.

1. The Environment Canada Youth Roundtable (Advisory Committee)
2. The Health Canada Youth Challenge
3. The BC Student Leadership Centre/BC Student Voice
4. Nepean Youth Advisory Committee
5. Nepean Youth Showcase Program
6. Richmond Youth School Trustee
7. Ottawa-Carleton Police Department Youth Centre
8. Gladstone Safe School Project
9. Student Participation in a High School Accreditation Process

Investigative Framework

Five Sets of Criteria to Assess Youth Involvement in Public Decision-Making

The following five sets of criteria assessing the effectiveness of youth involvement in public decision-making were developed from a variety of sources (See References). Each of these five sets includes several questions, derived from research, that assess the effectiveness of youth involvement programs and activities.

1.  Relationship between Youth Involvement and Sponsor Organization Goals
a) How do the characteristics of the sponsoring organization relate to the youth involvement?(purposes and planned outcomes, history of youth involvement, the nature of the youth leaders and audience, policy framework, Resources /  Publications assigned, numbers of youth involved, number of adults to be
involved).

2.  The Nature of the Youth Involvement
a) How will youth participate collectively; is it episodic, developmental, structural or are various youth groups being linked together? (See this section for an explanation of the terms developed by CMHA 1995.)    b) How will youth be involved individually? as core leaders? as volunteers, as attendees, as recipients?
c) What are the roles to be assigned to youth? specific tasks, to be consulted, as initiators, other?

3.  The Processes to be Used
    a) Are basic principles of youth participation being respected?
    b) Are barriers being addressed?
    c) Are enabling factors in place?
    d) Are the developmental needs of youth being met?
    e) Are the youth accountable?
    f) Are adults prepared to assist youth to participate?

4. How are these Criteria Applied to Different Types of Decision-Making?
    a) Youth Representatives on Governing Board
    b) Youth Representatives on Regular Committees
    c) Youth Advisory Committees
    d) Formal Consultations of Youth
    e)Youth Managed Programs (Delegation of a program or service)

5. The Evidence of the Impact of Youth Involvement
    a) What evidence is there of the impact of the youth participation in the decision-making of the organization?
    - on the youth leaders?
    - on the youth audience?
    - on other health determinants?

References

Health Canada (1995), Turning Points, Family and Child Health Unit, Ottawa, ON, pp. 15-16

Canadian Mental Health Association (1995), Working With Young People: A Guide to Youth Participating in Decision-Making, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto, ON.

Health Canada (1996), Capture the Learning: Lessons Learned from the Partners for Children Fund, Division of Childhood and Adolescence, Ottawa, ON.

Carr Rey A, Mobilizing Peer Support to Assist in Tobacco Reduction, Victoria, BC, Peer Resources /  Publications Inc.

Caputo T, Weiler R & Green L (1996) Peer Helper Initiatives for Out-of-the-Mainstream-Youth, Ottawa, ON, Health Canada

Cargo Margaret, Ward Patricia, Frankish C James (1996), West End Youth Project. Final Report, B.C. Health Research Foundation, Vancouver, BC.

CASH (1992), School-Community Partnerships for Healthy and Sustainable Environments, Surrey, BC, Canadian Association for School Health

Canadian Mental Health Association (1995), Working With Young People: A Guide to Youth
Participating in Decision-Making, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto, ON.

CCSD (1998), The Progress of Canada's Children, Ottawa, ON, Canadian Council on Social Development.

Cohen L (1993) Youth Action: A Report on the Canada 125 Youth Community Workshops, Ottawa, Canadian Youth Foundation

Fetterman DM (1996), Empowerment Evaluation: An Introduction to Theory and Practice in Fetterman DM et al, (1995) Empowerment Evaluation: Knowledge and Tools for Self-Assessment and Accountability, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage

National Crime Prevention Council, !1997) Young People Say: Report from the Youth Consultation Initiative, Ottawa, ON

Georgeault P & Sylvain L (1978) La participation des parents dans les comites des ecoles, Conseil Superieur de l'education du Quebec, Ministere de l'education du Quebec

McCall D (1979) Parent Participation: An Examination of the Potential Changes in Legislation Creating Orientation Councils in Quebec (Unpublished)

Shannon & McCall Consulting Ltd. (1997), Youth-Led Health Promotion A Framework for Investigating Effectiveness and Creating an Inventory of Tobacco and Other Programs, Canadian Association for School Health, Tobacco Reduction Program, Health Canada

Zypchyn, K and Brian Hill (1993), Manuel d'action jeunesse: Guide pour la gestion des projets. Ottawa, ON, Canadian Youth Foundation

Hearing the Voices of Youth: A Review of Research Documentation

Research that has been conducted on the attitudes of youth has shown that youth have a number of concerns that relate to a variety of issues - self-esteem, peers and social relations, family violence, sexuality and experiences at school. As well, young people want to be listened to and treated with respect and to be involved in a meaningful manner in the decision making that will affect their lives. Youth participation is also important to service providers and policy makers - this importance is reflected in a number of documents and policies promote youth decision making, such as the National Children's Agenda and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The report Hearing the Voices of Youth: A Review of Research and Consultation Documents, is based on a detailed review of documents which have recorded the views of youth on health related issues. An extensive search was undertaken to identify relevant materials. This included research reports, conference proceedings, consultation documents and other Resources /  Publications in which the voices of young people were recorded. These documents were then examined to identify key patterns and themes in the comments young people made about their health-related concerns and the suggestions they made for responding to these concerns.

Hearing the Voices of Youth: Youth Participation in Selected Municipalities

This study was designed to gather information on what is currently happening in Canadian communities with respect to youth participation. It was intended as a way of learning from people's experiences with youth participation and hearing their assessment of "what works." A decision was made to focus on youth participation at the municipal level since these government structures are close to the communities they serve and provide services which cut across various sectors of concern to youth. One of the main objectives of this study was to identify three or four "best practices" models which could be used for future work on youth participation. The following five key issues were examined during this study:

1. Youth Concerns - What are the three most important concerns currently being expressed by young people in your community?
2. Communication - How does your community identify the concerns of its young people?
3. Participation - Do young people in your community have a way of participating in the decisions that affect them?
4. Inclusion - Do you involve young people from different segments of the youth population in your community?
5. Ideal Model - What would be the best way of involving young people in your community?

This study employed a three step research process. In the first step relevant Canadian material was reviewed to identify components that could be included in "best practices" models of youth participation. In the second step, in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with knowledgeable individuals in different community types around the country. This included municipal officials, representatives of youth-serving agencies and police officers familiar with police-based youth initiatives. In this stage, 30 communities were included and they were selected from the five federal regions (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, Pacific), with six communities selected from each region to ensure regional representation. In the third step of the study, 15 of the 30 communities on the interview list were selected for site visits. Three communities were selected from each of the five regions - with sites of different sizes and in different parts of the country, including both rural and urban centres, as well as some Northern communities being included.

Amongst the findings some concerns stood out. These include the following:

What are the most important concerns currently being voiced by young people in your community?

• both adults and youth report that young people have nothing to do
• concerns about the future and getting a job were common
• youth feel they have nowhere to go and that they get "hassled" in stores, coffee shops, on the street and in malls
• concerns were expressed about the negative image society has of youth

How does your community identify the concerns of young people?

• youth voices are not heard in many communities
• there are few systematic opportunities for identifying youth concerns
• surveys, needs assessments and forums are used as to identify youth concerns
• most agencies rely on front-line staff to identify youth concerns

Do young people from all sectors of the youth population including marginal and high risk youth have an opportunity to participate?

• participation and involvement mean different things to different young people
• those interested in being heard and getting involved usually find a way
• communities have difficulty involving marginal youth and youth from various ethnic and cultural groups

What would be the best way of involving young people in your community?

• many argued that the community level is key
• issues must be 'real' for people to get involved
• the need for inter-agency support for youth participation was noted
• the political level was seen as crucial for legitimising youth participation
• many argued that a multi-level approach was required which includes community, inter-agency and political level support

The study was designed to identify three or four "best practices" models for youth participation and involvement. Although these models exist in theory, what was found in the communities was a more complex set of structures and processes. It is often very difficult for youth to voice their concerns and although there are some formal opportunities for youth participation at the municipal level, there was considerable frustration with the lack of progress made on youth issues. Many of the respondents agreed that a combination of local, inter-agency and political level involvement was required for a successful and sustainable youth participation program.

Important Notices