Youth Councils and digital platforms

Youth councils could play a signficant role in terms of connecting and engaging with youth. This might need moving away from traditional methods of engagement such as formal meetings. Forward and innovative thinking and establishing online forums to hear young voices would help increase youth participation in govt matters. Young people place greater importance on sense of belonging and prefer informal methods of communication. Meaningful engagment with youth could be achieved through connecting with them via sports, cultural and civic activities. 

Why the contribution is important

Young people will feel valued and heard. They will find it easy to engage with govt on matters important to them. 

by Tajinder on March 03, 2021 at 11:18AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.2
Based on: 5 votes

Comments

  • Posted by CAB March 18, 2021 at 14:26

    Utilising the huge reach of digital platforms would seem a good way to encourage participation .
    Lack of time is a barrier to participation and so anything which can be easily accessed is a plus.
    Many people ( not only youth ) use social media platforms - could there be a specificially designed platform for this ?

  • Posted by simonfj March 22, 2021 at 15:29

    There are, and have been many platforms like this undertaken by various gov over the past decades.

    If one looks at this list, everyone of them has duplicated their effort and time. https://www.opengovpartnership.org/our-members/#national

    The challenge is how one might encourage their individual (National) secretariats to collaborate Internationally once rather than trying to design a National perspective incessantly.

    Quite a challenge, eh?

  • Posted by livb13 April 12, 2021 at 23:20

    A Youth Council is a good concept and would be a good step forward, however a “council” sounds pretty boring and traditional still. I’m not sure exactly what you’d want it to achieve.

    A government innovation forum is needed. Not only should youth be the core demographic of the forums’ membership, but the forum could also be led by some of the fantastic young people that are already working within government.
    Mandate needs to be provided for these people to take new ideas and test them with their own organisations.

    This would really benefit “all of government” efforts - where a youth-led innovation hub acts as a collaborative cross-agency ‘agile’ team.

  • Posted by annesb July 27, 2021 at 16:23

    Rather than a youth council - how about a youth forum. ( Council is a name that sounds fuddy duddy ). Ask our youth to organise - might be digital, might be a gathering,, might be one topic eg climate change, sport facilities, fund raising, environmental - with some of their solutions carried through to Councils, Government. There are some awesome youth and young people who would make good youth led leaders for these type of forums.
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