Youth Work

Youth work practitioners responsible for enabling young people’s participation should continue to argue for why it is important, but must also keep asking themselves what the best way or model of doing it is and when, where and how it should be done. Youth workers must also keep asking about which young people are enabled to participate and who is ... See more

the right to participate is not just for young people, but for all people, and is anchored to the conviction that participation is a good thing. Youth workers want to involve young people in decision-making processes to support their right to participate (or not) and to promote young people’s personal development, enhance civic and community engage... See more

It is important to acknowledge that young people are ‘participating’ all the time in different ways and at different levels, often without assistance from adults or models of participation (Reddy & Ratna 2002; Vromen & Collin 2010). Adult models, however well-intentioned, can unwittingly be used to limit or restrict young people’s organic p... See more

As Lansdown (2010:12) has said: If advocacy to promote [young people’s and] children’s right to participation is to be effective, it is imperative that it is grounded in a clear understanding of the scope of the relevant rights in the [UN] Convention and the obligations they impose.

A measure or rationale for making difficult decisions with young people can be found in the UNCRC ‘best interests’ principle. It is important to ask what the benefits for all young people are, what the direct outcomes or consequences will be for those who participate in the decisions and who will be affected by them – be these effects moral, ethica... See more

codes such as the Commonwealth Code of Ethical Practice (Corney 2014a) are designed to assist youth workers in the making of difficult decisions when working with young people.

the concept of youth work as an educational practice (‘non-formal education and learning’) and its pedagogy as critical, progressive and emancipatory (Beck & Purcell 2010; Corney 2004, 2006, 2019; Freire 1972; Mayo 1999).

Youth workers need to be able to understand the nature of participation in situ : the context in which it is taking place, the boundaries of decision-making, what is able to be negotiated and/or what is achievable within those boundaries, and the level and range of participation options for young people in a given time and place, and that there are... See more

It is important to be reminded of the ‘voluntary association’ principle in youth work (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2009) and that as soon as young people are mandated or obliged to participate, this undermines the point of participation as well as a key principle of youth work.