EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PARTICIPATION

Description of the tool

OBJECTIVES
To identify where, on the “ladder of participation”, are the young people in your organisation.
To identify the challenges to full participation.
To identify examples of good practice that facilitate young people’s participation.

METHODOLOGY Introduce the ladder of participation as a way of looking at different levels of young people’s participation from “manipulated” (bottom of ladder) to “shared decision making” (top of the ladder). Distribute the “Empowerment through Participation” handout.

Divide the participants into small groups. Ask the small groups to identify where on the ladder of participation they think young people within their organisation feature and why. What are the difficulties and barriers? How can they promote young people’s full participation?

After the allocated time reconvene the full group and take feedback on where they think young people are on the ladder of participation. Ask the small groups to give feedback, to the full group, on their ideas on how to facilitate young people’s participation and identify some examples of good practice. Record these on the flipchart.