Sum Up of the Module

The module of the course is important resource for the youth workers, all eight topics are the essential that each youth workers should know and use it in their daily work. Usually when newcomer to field starts its carrier as a youth worker it need to google and search the information that he/she needs this is how we all started, since here you can find all information assembled in one space and you do not need to google and waste time on it. For newcomers it is a huge boost and leap forward in term of time and knowledge comparing to others that did not take this course. By getting this module, done student should be able to write, plan and implement the project related to the youth participation and empowerment.

The module is consist of eight vital topics concerning empowerment, youth participation and defining youth with fewer opportunities. In each topic you can find the main information that will help the student to get at least general understanding about the topic. We did not went too deep as this module is aiming to introduce the main assumption of youth participation and empowerment. 

It starts from the basic definition of the youth participation, where the various important opinions of the organizations and scholars are reflected. After the definition the gave que to the approach or model of participation the one that is most popular and practical is RMSOS carried out by the structures of Council of Europe. Next comes the  explanation of legal bases and the rights related to the youth participation, this part provides the main idea of how the youth participation is connected to the human rights and how it is reflected in various strategic and policy documents of international organisations. After we give the spot to the famous theory of ladder of the participation, where we get to know about the levels of participation, its importance and practice. It is followed by the structured dialogue which is the important form and model of youth empowerment engagement, it is discussed various models proposed or practiced by international organisations. Sixth topic is dedicated to the online participation and game changing features of cutting edge technology and new era of ICT in youth participation process. It follows by the explanation of the term youth with fewer opportunities, where the most known definition and/of groups/categories of the young people are given. The last topic is dedicated to the youth empowerment issue and is describing the difference features, types and means of youth empowerment mainly connected to the participation matter.

All topics has some video materials that are additional information for the student. Those resources are taken from the youtube or vimeo platform and consist of lectures, informative videos, speeches TEDx or just inspiring clips referring to the topic.

The information gathered in the module is not mostly belong to the author but rather presents the collection of the theories and practices from various web-sources.  We believe that the course will be useful for any youth worker the one with experience or without. 

Practical tasks: 

1. to find youth participation including structued dialogue cases between youth and authorities related policy or legal act in your country.
2. to deliver a lecture or workshop with youth on the topic of ladder of participation (you can use the related activity from the manual Have Your Say! )

List of main literature

• A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R Arnstein
• Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship Roger Harts 
• Ladder of Participation Compass – Manual
• Have Your Say - Manual
• Reddy, N. & K. Ratna  (2002) “A Journey in Children’s Participation”, The Concerned for Working Children, Bangalore, India
• "Youth empowerment programs". County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. 2015
• Zimmerman, Marc A. (2000). "Empowerment Theory". In Rappaport, Julian; Seidman, Edward (eds.). Handbook of Community Psychology
• Reischl, Thomas M.; Zimmerman, Marc A.; Morrel-Samuels, Susan; Franzen, Susan P.; Faulk, Monique; Eisman, Andria B.; Roberts, Everett (2011). "Youth empowerment solutions for violence prevention". Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews.
• Edralin, Divina M.; Tibon, Maria Victoria P.; Tugas, Florenz C. (Jan 2015). "Initiating Women Empowerment and Youth Development through Involvement in Non-Formal Education in Three Selected Parishes: An Action Research on Poverty Alleviation". DLSU Business & Economics Review. Vol. 24 : 2015.
• Macintosh, Ann (2004). "Characterizing E-Participation in Policy-Making". In the Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
• The revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, May 2003, III.1.59.