Many communities that tested the framework and toolkit identified youth as a priority group for their plan, facing risk factors such as coming from a single parent family, leaving care, unsupervised children, etc. There is also significant research literature that supports the active participation and inclusion of youth in decision-making as a way of addressing exclusion and marginalization. This section was developed for adults in communities that are undertaking the community safety and well-being planning process to help them understand a youth perspective and how to meaningfully engage youth.

Benefits of youth engagement

The following are some of the benefits to engaging youth in the community safety and well-being planning process:

  • opportunity for new understanding of the lived reality of youth
  • opportunity to inform broader community safety and well-being plans, and other initiatives that may be developed to address identified risk areas
  • opportunity to breakdown stereotypes/assumptions about young people. In particular, assumptions related to risk areas that may involve youth
  • long-term opportunity for creation of on-the-ground community policies and programs that are increasingly responsive to the needs of youth
  • shared learning of current issues as youth often raise questions that have not been thought of by adults
  • new ideas, energy and knowledge
  • creates healthy and positive community connections between youth and adults, leading to social cohesion, and
  • opportunity to ask what youth are traditionally excluded from and offers an opportunity to get them to the table.

Additionally, the following are benefits that youth engagement can have on the youth themselves:

  • build pride/self-esteem for being contributors to a larger purpose (i.e., local plans with a youth perspective)
  • opportunities to build skills, for example:
    • communication – opportunities for youth to assist in the creation of material (i.e., advertisement, pamphlets, etc.)
    • analytical – opportunities to analyze and interpret information that is gathered to inform the plan from a different perspective
  • connection to positive adult(s), and
  • inclusion and a voice into what is happening in the community.

Practical tips

The following are some practical tips for engaging youth during the community safety and well-being planning process.

Explaining the project

  • Create youth-friendly materials about community safety and well-being planning – posters, postcards and social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Work with youth to define how they will participate by allowing the youth to help co-create the purpose of their engagement and their role in planning.
  • When young people are able to design and manage projects, they feel some sense of ownership in the project. Involvement fosters motivation, which fosters competence, which in turn fosters motivation for future projects.
  • Explain upfront what their role will be. Try and negotiate roles honestly while ensuring any promises made are kept.
  • Try for a meaningful role, not just token involvement, such as one-off consultation with no follow-up.

Collaboration

  • Adults should collaborate with youth and not take over.
  • Provide youth with support and training (e.g., work with existing community agencies to host consultation sessions, ask youth allies and leaders from communities to facilitate consultation, recruit youth from communities to act as facilitators and offer support and training, etc.).
  • Partner with grassroots organizations, schools and other youth organizations. By reaching out to a variety of organizations, it is possible to gather a wider range of youth perspectives.
  • Provide youth with opportunities to learn and develop skills from the participation experience. For example, an opportunity to conduct a focus group provides youth with the opportunity to gain skills in facilitation and interviewing.

Assets

  • Look at youth in terms of what they have to offer to the community and their capacities – not just needs and deficits.
  • Understand that working with youth who are at different ages and stages will help adults to recognize how different youth have strengths and capacities.
  • Ask youth to help map what they see as community assets and community strengths.

Equity and diversity

  • Identify diverse groups of youth that are not normally included (e.g., LGBTQ (Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, two-spirited, transgendered, questioning, queer), racialized youth, Indigenous youth, Francophone youth, youth with disabilities, immigrant youth, etc.).
  • Proactively reach out to youth and seek the help of adults that the youth know and already trust.
  • When working with diverse communities, find people that can relate to youth and their customs, cultures, traditions, language and practices.
  • Understand and be able to explain why you are engaging with particular groups of youth and what you will do with the information that you gather.

Forming an advisory group

One way of gathering youth perspectives is to form a youth advisory group.

  • Look for a diversity of participants from wide variety of diverse backgrounds. For example, put a call out to local youth-serving organizations, schools, etc.
  • Spend time letting the youth get to know each other and building a safe space to create a dialogue.
  • Depending on the level of participation, have youth and/or their parents/guardians sign a consent form to participate in the project.
  • Keep parents/guardians of the youth involved and up-to-date on progress.
  • Find different ways for youth to share their perspectives as not all youth are ‘talkers’. Engage youth through arts, music and taking photos.
  • An advisory group provides a good opportunity for youth to socialize with peers in a positive environment and to work as a team.

Recognition and compensation

  • Youth advisory group members can be volunteers, but try to compensate through small honorariums and by offering food and covering transportation costs where possible. This will support youth that might not traditionally be able to get involved.
  • Recognition does not have to be monetary. For example, meaningful recognition of the youth’s participation can include letters for community service hours or a letter that can be included in a work portfolio that describes in detail their role in the initiative.