How to participate?
Youth participation is impossible to imagine without relevant approach. There should be sufficient environment where young people will be able to be engaged in decision-making process. The EU has underlined the necessity of the space for the young people for the engagement in decision-making process. This principle has been reflected in the strategic document on youth adopted in 2019-2027 as one of the main principles and goals.
There are various approaches that ensures or promote the youth participation the one that we are going to introduce here is carried out by the Council of Europe and found an important place in the manual Have Your Say! manual is based on the revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life adopted by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe that operates under the Council of Europe structure.
RMSOS approach provides a framework that can help to discover whether young people have the right, means, space, opportunities and support (RMSOS) within communities, organizations or projects – in other words, whether they have the elements necessary for their meaningful participation.
The five keywords represent the main factors having an influence on youth involvement at local level (they will be explained more in detail later in this chapter). Each of them focuses on a different support measure, but they are closely interrelated, and they all have to be fulfilled for young people to be able to participate fully in the activities or decisions that interest them.
The RMSOS approach can be a useful tool for young people, youth workers or local authorities as it helps them to look critically at their projects or initiatives and to find out whether the right conditions for young people’s participation have been created.
The tool can be used not only at the level of local policies or local decision-making, but also within institutions or organizations and in the framework of youth projects, because it promotes values and principles strengthening meaningful youth participation.
Theoretical material
The RMSOS framework is a means of assessing the extent to which each of the five main factors influencing youth participation is present within a project, initiative, organisation or in community life.
Lets see what does each of them really means and why it is required to respect them within the youth work.
RIGHTS - Young people have an implicit right to participate, it is referred to as a human right or citizen’s right. Ideally, there should be a law at local and/or regional level stating that young people have to be consulted and have the right to participate in issues, actions and decisions affecting them. However, even in communities where no such law officially exists, young people have a right to participate. In other words, it is not dependent on local or regional authorities to grant such a right, but it is a fundamental right that all young people have and should demand.
Young people should be active in promoting their rights. In practice, this means much more than influencing local decisions by consultations or voting. It implies that the activities, projects or organisations should promote rights that young people have in all areas of life, and this means not only civil or political rights, but also social, economic or cultural ones.
MEANS- Life can be more difficult for young people who have insufficient resources in life (e.g. financial) and live in poverty due to unemployment or a difficult situation they are in.
This may mean that their basic needs like food or shelter are not fulfilled; this may make them feel isolated or left out of society. It is natural that in such circumstances young people’s priority is to try to look for different ways of securing the missing resources and they might find it much more difficult to participate in the life of an organisation or community due to such simple factors like the lack of time or motivation. Therefore, in order to support young people to get involved it has to be ensured that basic living conditions are met. These include sufficient social security, education, housing, healthcare, transportation, know-how or access to technology.
SPACE - Young people need physical space to meet, to spend time or to organise their own activities. As far as participation in school activities or other organised curricula is concerned, there are usually facilities provided (in classrooms, gyms, youth clubs), but it is much more difficult for young people to find a space to meet if they are interested in getting involved in some non-organised initiatives. That is why more and more often we see the internet being used by young people as space to get in touch with other likeminded people to exchange views and even set up projects.
But this RMSOS factor is not only about physical space, it is much more about the space to participate within the institutional framework of policymaking. This essentially means that young people's views, recommendations and conclusions should have a real impact on decisions that are made. Very often young people are invited to participate in processes, but in fact they have little possibility to impact and shape the final outcome. This is what is called token representation.
OPPORTUNITY - In order to be able to participate actively young people need to be provided with the opportunity to do so. This means for example that young people must have easy access to information about how to get involved, what are the opportunities available and where. When they know what is going on in their local community in terms of youth participation they can make informed decisions about their involvement. Sometimes young people do not participate not because they have no interest, but simply because they never get the information about existing opportunities.
Secondly, the events, decision-making processes and systems need to be youth friendly. There should be not only space for young people within these processes and structures, but the way they are organised and they work should be such, that young people can understand them and fully contribute if they so wish. Therefore it has to be ensured for example that young people have the opportunity to participate in terms of having sufficient time and supportive structures.
SUPPORT - Young people have lots of talent and a big potential to participate, but without some necessary support their involvement might not be as efficient as it could be. Therefore, they should have access to a number of supports. These include for example financial, moral and institutional support, on a number of different levels – personal, organisational or local community level. Ideally, local authorities should provide adequate support in terms of finances to cover expenses and structural costs, but still in many communities youth issues do not have a priority status in terms of local financial management.
Moreover, young people need to have access to moral support and advice. This can be provided for example by a person referred to in the revised Charter as a guarantor, or otherwise by a youth worker or other professional who has necessary experience and expertise in working in the field of youth-adults partnership or working with young people. Lastly, the institution as a whole or a community needs to support and recognize the importance of and contribution of youth participation not only for young people but for public authorities and society in general.
It has been already mentioned that all five elements of the RMSOS approach need to be present in order that meaningful participation by young people can take place. If, for example, their right to participate is denied, it does not matter what means, space or support will be provided, and they will not be able to get involved. On the other hand, having the right, but insufficient support means that this right cannot be exercised. Although each of the RMSOS factors has been analyzed separately in this chapter, one therefore needs to see all the elements as parts of an interconnected system, one that is balanced and operates well only when all the elements function properly.