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Little is known about the experience and impact of intersectional stigma experienced by rural young people (15–25 years) who have a parent with mental health challenges. The StigmaBeat project employed a co-design approach to create short films to identify and challenge mental health stigma from the perspective of young people who have experienced this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to describe the co-design methodological approach used in StigmaBeat, as an example of a novel participatory project. We describe one way that co-design can be employed by researchers in collaboration with marginalised young people to produce films aimed at reducing mental health stigma in the community. Through describing the processes undertaken in this project, the opportunities, challenges, and tensions of combining community development methods with research methods will be explored. Co-design with young people is a dynamic and engaging method of collaborative research practice capable of harnessing lived experience expertise to intervene in social issues and redesign or redevelop health services and policies. The participatory approach involved trusting and implementing the suggestions of young people in designing and developing the films and involved creating the physical and social environment to enable this, including embedding creativity, a critical element to the project’s methodological success. Intensive time and resource investment are needed to engage a population that is often marginalised in relation to stigma discourse.

This Nordic Voluntary Subnational Review (VSR) is the first cross-national report of its kind in the world. It has been developed as a joint venture by the Nordic Associations of Local and Regional Governments (LRGAs) and Nordregio. The aim of the report is to highlight how the Nordic municipalities and regional authorities have localised the Sustainable Development Goals – progress made, as well as obstacles they have met in their work. Through the report and a toolbox, we want to share learnings and tested methods with local and regional authorities globally. Development happens locally. At least 105 of the 169 SDGs depend on active engagement from local and regional authorities. The 2030 Agenda can serve as tools to pinpoint sustainability challenges and track progress holistically, fostering collaboration among citizens, businesses, and civil society. Nordic welfare states, known for their autonomy at the municipal and regional level, have long served as a global benchmark for systematically addressing sustainability challenges. This Nordic VSR is based on surveys sent to Nordic municipalities, complemented by interviews with representatives from the LRGAs regarding the strengths and weaknesses of national support to the local level, as well as the role of LRGAs in building competence and promoting municipal cooperation. The report also includes subchapters on methods for meaningful citizen engagement by The Nordic Youth Network for Sustainable Development and the Nordic Civil Society Network.

Engaging youth in policy-making is crucial for a vibrant democracy and participatory governance. Despite its importance, youth engagement in parliaments during policy-making is often overlooked. In Kenya, excluding youth from decision-making threatens peace, democracy, and development, especially given the growing youth population. The June 2024 #RejectFinanceBill protests highlight the impact of this exclusion. This study assesses the perspectives of parliamentarians, civil society, and youth on youth participation in policy-making, focusing on barriers such as financial resources, time, and civic skills, as well as strategies to improve youth engagement. The Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) guides the study, focusing on resources, motivation (psychological engagement), and recruitment networks. A combination of sampling techniques was used to gather data. Convenient sampling selected 8 parliamentarians, purposive sampling identified 3 civil society representatives, and snowball sampling recruited 26 youth. Of the youth, 6 were interviewed in detail, while data from 20 youth participating in protests were also gathered to assess the extent of public participation in parliamentary policy-making. Qualitative analysis found that the main resource barrier to youth participation was a lack of civic skills and awareness of policy-makingprocesses. While Kenyan youth are eager to engage, they need more civic training. Parliamentarians and CSOs highlighted the importance of building these skills. CSO’s suggested that MPs and moderators also need training to engage diverse youth. Technology, particularly social media, was seen as vital for recruitment and engagement, but CSOs were not viewed as essential intermediaries. Findings suggest that increased political will, trust from MPs, and reduced gatekeeping could enhance youth engagement. Improved physical engagement structures and creative methods like music and dance are proposed to attract urban and rural youth to public part

Engaging youth in policy-making is crucial for a vibrant democracy and participatory governance. Despite its importance, youth engagement in parliaments during policy-making is often overlooked. In Kenya, excluding youth from decision-making threatens peace, democracy, and development, especially given the growing youth population. The June 2024 #RejectFinanceBill protests highlight the impact of this exclusion. This study assesses the perspectives of parliamentarians, civil society, and youth on youth participation in policy-making, focusing on barriers such as financial resources, time, and civic skills, as well as strategies to improve youth engagement. The Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) guides the study, focusing on resources, motivation (psychological engagement), and recruitment networks. A combination of sampling techniques was used to gather data. Convenient sampling selected 8 parliamentarians, purposive sampling identified 3 civil society representatives, and snowball sampling recruited 26 youth. Of the youth, 6 were interviewed in detail, while data from 20 youth participating in protests were also gathered to assess the extent of public participation in parliamentary policy-making. Qualitative analysis found that the main resource barrier to youth participation was a lack of civic skills and awareness of policy-makingprocesses. While Kenyan youth are eager to engage, they need more civic training. Parliamentarians and CSOs highlighted the importance of building these skills. CSO’s suggested that MPs and moderators also need training to engage diverse youth. Technology, particularly social media, was seen as vital for recruitment and engagement, but CSOs were not viewed as essential intermediaries. Findings suggest that increased political will, trust from MPs, and reduced gatekeeping could enhance youth engagement. Improved physical engagement structures and creative methods like music and dance are proposed to attract urban and rural youth to public part

This study examines youth political participation in Pakistan, specifically focusing on the 2024 elections. It explores how active youth engagement can enhance democratic consolidation and assesses the level of youth involvement during the elections as compared to previous elections of Pakistan. Targeting Pakistani youth aged 18 to 29, the data was collected from a sample of representative youth voters across different provinces of Pakistan. The survey included questions on voting behavior, political engagement, and perceptions of democracy, with validity ensured through expert review and piloting, and reliability assessed using test-retest methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the responses. Key findings reveal a significant increase in youth voter turnout (about 48%) during the 2024 elections, with youth participation extending beyond voting to active involvement in political discourses and campaigns. This trend indicates a positive shift toward a more vibrant and participatory democracy. The study suggests recommendations such as encouraging youth participation and empowering youth through civic education

This study examines youth political participation in Pakistan, specifically focusing on the 2024 elections. It explores how active youth engagement can enhance democratic consolidation and assesses the level of youth involvement during the elections as compared to previous elections of Pakistan. Targeting Pakistani youth aged 18 to 29, the data was collected from a sample of representative youth voters across different provinces of Pakistan. The survey included questions on voting behavior, political engagement, and perceptions of democracy, with validity ensured through expert review and piloting, and reliability assessed using test-retest methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the responses. Key findings reveal a significant increase in youth voter turnout (about 48%) during the 2024 elections, with youth participation extending beyond voting to active involvement in political discourses and campaigns. This trend indicates a positive shift toward a more vibrant and participatory democracy. The study suggests recommendations such as encouraging youth participation and empowering youth through civic education

Several aspects of the Maldives’ recent development pattern highlight imbalances between labor demand and supply. Public sector jobs are predominantly in the civil service with the rapid expansion of cadres in the 1990s and 2000s. However, with the increasing standard of living over time, the labor market has become more challenging for Maldivians in general. Increasing educational attainment among the younger generation and expectations have coincided/collided with the rapid growth in low-skill service jobs associated with tourism and construction, leading to a mismatch in skills supply and demand. Despite the high levels of growth and labor market conditions in public investments, tourism, fisheries and non-tradable tourism related activities, important challenges remain for young Maldivians. TVET is perceived as second-class option to most of the youth. Many reasons that cloaked these issues such as lack of awareness, publicity and career readiness. This research seeks to identify the issue and challenges and strategies that can be implemented to enhance career development among Maldivian youth on TVET. Mixed method has been adapted in this research by employing questionnaires and conducting interviews. 200 respondents participated in the survey and five experts were involved in the interviews. Data were analysed quantitatively for survey and thematic analysis for the qualitative data. According to the findings, a majority of respondents (81.7%) have heard of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), but less than half (45.2%) understand that it can lead to better employment opportunities. Experts have identified seven strategies to improve TVET for youth career development, including promoting it through electronic media, launching a national campaign, strengthening partnerships with industry, branding and holding skills competitions. This information is valuable for policymakers and stakeholders in the Maldives as they work to design and implement

This study investigated the divergent system of education in Pakistan with a special focus on evaluating youth engagement contributing to a secure Pakistan. Youth engagement activities were explored with respect to economic, social, and political context. The study adopted a descriptive strategy following a qualitative approach. Nine participants from government institutions, private institutions and madrasahs were selected using convenient sampling technique for data collection. Interviews with structured questions were designed to apply the thematic analysis. The findings show that a small segment of private schools understand its significance and engage their students in activities that facilitate them to understand the concepts such as entrepreneurship, business engagements, small and large-scale businesses, and ideas related to such business domain. It was found that only a few public schools responded to promote leadership skills in their respective schools through various classroom practices and school activities. The respondents of madrasahs perceive political engagement of youth by affiliating themselves with a political party. The findings show a mixed response to the political engagement of youth. However, the realization of its significance in the current times has been found among all respondents. In accordance with the social engagement of youth, there seems to be a proper system in place for fostering social skills amongst the students in private schools.

Bring Change 2 Mind (BC2M) high school clubs may destigmatize mental illness among club members, but clubs (1) reach and impact on non-club members at the same school, (2) connection to student help-seeking attitudes, and (3) mechanisms by which they destigmatize mental illness, are unknown. This community-partnered evaluation involved pre/post surveys of predominantly Latino (72%) students at three urban public schools and focus groups and interviews with a sample of club members (n = 26/65, 40%) and all club staff (n = 7, 100%). Multivariate regressions tested relationships between variables. In 84% of the student body responded in the Fall (n = 1,040) and Spring (n = 1,031). Non-club member engagement in BC2M (reach) increased from 25% (Fall) to 44% (Spring) (p < .01). Engagement with BC2M clubs was associated with decreased stigma among members (p < .05) but not non-members (p = .19). Decreased stigma was associated with help-seeking attitudes (p < .01). Possible BC2M mechanisms identified by students and staff include the following: (1) fostering a positive campus climate, (2) normalizing mental health discussions, (3) increasing peer support and help-seeking, and (4) increasing awareness of positive coping behaviors. While BC2M clubs likely reduce stigma for members, effects did not reach non-members, challenging the potential of BC2M clubs as a schoolwide strategy to destigmatize mental health services. Future projects could investigate how to reach non-BC2M members, complement BC2M with other school climate interventions to increase impact, and measure BC2M impact alongside other outcomes relevant to schools, such as academic achievement.

This policy brief delves into the importance of understanding and supporting the priorities of young people in Nordic rural regions to ensure these communities thrive. It highlights the importance of addressing challenges that keep youth from staying in rural areas and engaging with those unsure about their future there. Serving as a comprehensive guide for policymakers, the policy brief contextualises the report from the Nordic rural youth panel “ From Fields to Futures: 40 action points for rural revitalisation”. The brief examines academic discussions, prevalent narratives, and youth engagement efforts, emphasising the Nordic Rural Youth Panel's 40 proposed actions to revitalise rural areas. The paper investigates what young people need and want, their aspirations and ideas, and the solutions they propose to policymakers that could attract them back to rural areas. It also explores ways to create and enhance opportunities for rural youth to realise their potential and contribute significantly to their communities, thereby changing the existing narratives about young people in rural areas. Lastly, the policy brief stresses the importance of considering diverse youth perspectives in policymaking to promote inclusive and sustainable rural development.

This policy brief delves into the importance of understanding and supporting the priorities of young people in Nordic rural regions to ensure these communities thrive. It highlights the importance of addressing challenges that keep youth from staying in rural areas and engaging with those unsure about their future there. Serving as a comprehensive guide for policymakers, the policy brief contextualises the report from the Nordic rural youth panel “ From Fields to Futures: 40 action points for rural revitalisation”. The brief examines academic discussions, prevalent narratives, and youth engagement efforts, emphasising the Nordic Rural Youth Panel's 40 proposed actions to revitalise rural areas. The paper investigates what young people need and want, their aspirations and ideas, and the solutions they propose to policymakers that could attract them back to rural areas. It also explores ways to create and enhance opportunities for rural youth to realise their potential and contribute significantly to their communities, thereby changing the existing narratives about young people in rural areas. Lastly, the policy brief stresses the importance of considering diverse youth perspectives in policymaking to promote inclusive and sustainable rural development.

This study investigated the divergent system of education in Pakistan with a special focus on evaluating youth engagement contributing to a secure Pakistan. Youth engagement activities were explored with respect to economic, social, and political context. The study adopted a descriptive strategy following a qualitative approach. Nine participants from government institutions, private institutions and madrasahs were selected using convenient sampling technique for data collection. Interviews with structured questions were designed to apply the thematic analysis. The findings show that a small segment of private schools understand its significance and engage their students in activities that facilitate them to understand the concepts such as entrepreneurship, business engagements, small and large-scale businesses, and ideas related to such business domain. It was found that only a few public schools responded to promote leadership skills in their respective schools through various classroom practices and school activities. The respondents of madrasahs perceive political engagement of youth by affiliating themselves with a political party. The findings show a mixed response to the political engagement of youth. However, the realization of its significance in the current times has been found among all respondents. In accordance with the social engagement of youth, there seems to be a proper system in place for fostering social skills amongst the students in private schools.

Several aspects of the Maldives’ recent development pattern highlight imbalances between labor demand and supply. Public sector jobs are predominantly in the civil service with the rapid expansion of cadres in the 1990s and 2000s. However, with the increasing standard of living over time, the labor market has become more challenging for Maldivians in general. Increasing educational attainment among the younger generation and expectations have coincided/collided with the rapid growth in low-skill service jobs associated with tourism and construction, leading to a mismatch in skills supply and demand. Despite the high levels of growth and labor market conditions in public investments, tourism, fisheries and non-tradable tourism related activities, important challenges remain for young Maldivians. TVET is perceived as second-class option to most of the youth. Many reasons that cloaked these issues such as lack of awareness, publicity and career readiness. This research seeks to identify the issue and challenges and strategies that can be implemented to enhance career development among Maldivian youth on TVET. Mixed method has been adapted in this research by employing questionnaires and conducting interviews. 200 respondents participated in the survey and five experts were involved in the interviews. Data were analysed quantitatively for survey and thematic analysis for the qualitative data. According to the findings, a majority of respondents (81.7%) have heard of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), but less than half (45.2%) understand that it can lead to better employment opportunities. Experts have identified seven strategies to improve TVET for youth career development, including promoting it through electronic media, launching a national campaign, strengthening partnerships with industry, branding and holding skills competitions. This information is valuable for policymakers and stakeholders in the Maldives as they work to design and implement

This study investigated the divergent system of education in Pakistan with a special focus on evaluating youth engagement contributing to a secure Pakistan. Youth engagement activities were explored with respect to economic, social, and political context. The study adopted a descriptive strategy following a qualitative approach. Nine participants from government institutions, private institutions and madrasahs were selected using convenient sampling technique for data collection. Interviews with structured questions were designed to apply the thematic analysis. The findings show that a small segment of private schools understand its significance and engage their students in activities that facilitate them to understand the concepts such as entrepreneurship, business engagements, small and large-scale businesses, and ideas related to such business domain. It was found that only a few public schools responded to promote leadership skills in their respective schools through various classroom practices and school activities. The respondents of madrasahs perceive political engagement of youth by affiliating themselves with a political party. The findings show a mixed response to the political engagement of youth. However, the realization of its significance in the current times has been found among all respondents. In accordance with the social engagement of youth, there seems to be a proper system in place for fostering social skills amongst the students in private schools.

Several aspects of the Maldives’ recent development pattern highlight imbalances between labor demand and supply. Public sector jobs are predominantly in the civil service with the rapid expansion of cadres in the 1990s and 2000s. However, with the increasing standard of living over time, the labor market has become more challenging for Maldivians in general. Increasing educational attainment among the younger generation and expectations have coincided/collided with the rapid growth in low-skill service jobs associated with tourism and construction, leading to a mismatch in skills supply and demand. Despite the high levels of growth and labor market conditions in public investments, tourism, fisheries and non-tradable tourism related activities, important challenges remain for young Maldivians. TVET is perceived as second-class option to most of the youth. Many reasons that cloaked these issues such as lack of awareness, publicity and career readiness. This research seeks to identify the issue and challenges and strategies that can be implemented to enhance career development among Maldivian youth on TVET. Mixed method has been adapted in this research by employing questionnaires and conducting interviews. 200 respondents participated in the survey and five experts were involved in the interviews. Data were analysed quantitatively for survey and thematic analysis for the qualitative data. According to the findings, a majority of respondents (81.7%) have heard of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), but less than half (45.2%) understand that it can lead to better employment opportunities. Experts have identified seven strategies to improve TVET for youth career development, including promoting it through electronic media, launching a national campaign, strengthening partnerships with industry, branding and holding skills competitions. This information is valuable for policymakers and stakeholders in the Maldives as they work to design and implement

Effectively engaging citizens during crises is critical for governments to disseminate timely information and help the public to adjust to the constantly changing conditions. In particular, promoting youth engagement not only enhances crisis awareness and resilience among the young generation, but also has a positive impact on youths' social participation and responsibility. With the increasing popularity of online video services, leveraging online videos to disseminate authoritative information has become a method widely adopted by government. To enhance youth awareness and engagement, two new video-based crisis communication strategies have been utilized on a popular youth-targeted video platform Bilibili in China: creating recreational videos such as animation and music videos, and collaborating with individual video-uploaders in video making. However, their impacts and results are largely unknown, which motivates our study. Guided by Entertainment Education (EE) and Collaborative Governance (CG), we report, to our best knowledge, the first systematic study on how recreational video category and government-citizen collaboration would influence youth engagement focusing on 3347 COVID-19-related government-generated videos on Bilibili. This study reveals that recreational videos successfully promote youth engagement including interaction, feedback and sharing. Collaboration with individual uploaders in video making also has a substantially positive impact on youth engagement. Through an in-depth qualitative content analysis of user-generated commentaries, we further unpacked the unique values (e.g., trust work for youth participation) as well as latent limitations (e.g., imbalanced topic distribution) of the two new strategies. We discuss how the findings enrich EE and CG theoretically, and provide practical implications to effective and engaging communication strategies during crises. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Bosnia & Herzegovina is the 27th largest exporter of coal-fired energy in the world. Multiple organizations are warning about the dangerous rates of air polluting substances in many of the country’s larger cities. Youths in Bosnia & Herzegovina feel alienated from decision-making, making it hard for them to express their voice and concerns. This paper is looking at the situation from a human ecologist standpoint, studying how air pollution, the coal industry, and the youths are interconnected through economic, political, and societal structures. This paper aims to answer the question: How do a group of young inhabitants from a coal-producing region in Bosnia & Herzegovina experience their influence on the country’s climate impact through their coal mining industry, and how are they involved in change processes within the subject? Interviewing young people from the most coal-producing areas in the country, I wanted to showcase their perceived reality. Using different sociologist and human ecologist theories, this research presents a snapshot of youth’s reality in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The key finding of this paper is that youths in the country are hesitant to engage due to several factors, including lack of knowledge, social structures, and corruption. While they are most likely suffering an information incident, they are also part of a socially constructed denial. This research helps lift a young perspective into the debate and hopefully it can help to include youths in decision-making processes in the future.

The climate crisis has inspired youth-led activism across the world and young people now lead global campaigns and political protest on climate justice. However, aside from news media coverage of youth activism and the attendant focus on young people’s hand-drawn protest placards, relatively little is known about young people’s views on the actions needed to respond to the climate crisis or how they imagine environmentally-sustainable futures. This visual essay addresses that lacuna by exploring young people’s ideas about local climate actions. The images selected for consideration were created using Minecraft, the 3D block-building visualisation game, at workshops held in Ireland. Young people and their families were invited to create environmentally-sustainable futures at Minecraft workshops. Exploring these 3D designs as images, the essay documents young people’s visual representations of desirable climate actions and reflects on these Minecraft images to shed light on how young people envision alternative climate futures. These collective visions, or climate imaginaries, are powerful indicators of what young people imagine is possible in the future. In doing so, they present an alternative to the mainstream news and entertainment media preoccupation with dystopian constructions of the climate crisis. They also highlight the power of Minecraft as a visual medium to open up new ways of seeing nature and of envisioning nature-society relations. The selected images were also exhibited as part of the CLIMATE Look Lab 2022 held at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. The gallery invited researchers, community groups and artists to use the gallery as a lab space to engage visitors with our changing environment and to explore how images can change the visual narrative on climate change., Heritage & Values

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of the global development agenda. In recent years, young people have been publicly recognised as key stakeholders in efforts to address it. One of the platforms through which young climate activists and advocates engage in climate governance is the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Typically accompanied by widespread media coverage, COPs provide opportunities for both State and Non-State Actors - including youth - for claim-making, agenda-setting, advocacy, and awareness raising. Despite the growing attention to youth-led climate activism, research on the ways in which youth participate in the COPs, their experiences, and perceptions of their participation, has been limited and has tended to focus on youth from the Global North. To begin to address this gap, this research explores the experiences of youth climate activists and advocates from the Global South at the COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. Informed by theories and frameworks of participation, the objective is to understand how these young people participated, the factors and dynamics which affected their experience, and how they viewed their participation. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews conducted in March and April 2022 with 11 young people who were all first-time attendees of the COP. During COP26 they were engaged in activities in both the formal spaces of COP, such as side-events and negotiations, as well as informal or civil society spaces like marches and offsite events. Perceptions of youth participation varied among the interviewees and depended on the spaces or interactions discussed. Many expressed frustrations with the narrow opportunities for young people to engage in the official decision-making processes. However, despite the challenges to their participation in the formal spaces of COP26, young people experienced strong community connecti

The APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) Vision Zero for Youth Initiative adopts the global Vision Zero traffic safety movement’s goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and injuries to pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular crashes. The APS Vision Zero for Youth Initiative is comprised of a traffic-safety curriculum for K-8 students, an action plan that sets traffic-safety goals and progress evaluation frameworks for the school district, and a campaign to build a new culture of traffic safety for students, families, and local communities. This project employs participatory methods that build the capacity of students enrolled in local public schools to produce and share collective understandings of pedestrian safety to guide the initiative’s development. The methods utilized in this research project include: 1) Participatory Student Mapping Sessions that engaged approximately 150 students across 7 APS schools to assess problems and solutions for safer transportation systems. 2) The development of equitable prioritization processes to engage students from schools with the highest need for pedestrian safety interventions. 3) The development of student and stakeholder engagement strategies. 4) The production and sharing of student-sourced data for interagency concurrency and regional pedestrian safety and Vision Zero-related goals.

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of the global development agenda. In recent years, young people have been publicly recognised as key stakeholders in efforts to address it. One of the platforms through which young climate activists and advocates engage in climate governance is the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Typically accompanied by widespread media coverage, COPs provide opportunities for both State and Non-State Actors - including youth - for claim-making, agenda-setting, advocacy, and awareness raising. Despite the growing attention to youth-led climate activism, research on the ways in which youth participate in the COPs, their experiences, and perceptions of their participation, has been limited and has tended to focus on youth from the Global North. To begin to address this gap, this research explores the experiences of youth climate activists and advocates from the Global South at the COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. Informed by theories and frameworks of participation, the objective is to understand how these young people participated, the factors and dynamics which affected their experience, and how they viewed their participation. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews conducted in March and April 2022 with 11 young people who were all first-time attendees of the COP. During COP26 they were engaged in activities in both the formal spaces of COP, such as side-events and negotiations, as well as informal or civil society spaces like marches and offsite events. Perceptions of youth participation varied among the interviewees and depended on the spaces or interactions discussed. Many expressed frustrations with the narrow opportunities for young people to engage in the official decision-making processes. However, despite the challenges to their participation in the formal spaces of COP26, young people experienced strong community connecti

Effectively engaging citizens during crises is critical for governments to disseminate timely information and help the public to adjust to the constantly changing conditions. In particular, promoting youth engagement not only enhances crisis awareness and resilience among the young generation, but also has a positive impact on youths' social participation and responsibility. With the increasing popularity of online video services, leveraging online videos to disseminate authoritative information has become a method widely adopted by government. To enhance youth awareness and engagement, two new video-based crisis communication strategies have been utilized on a popular youth-targeted video platform Bilibili in China: creating recreational videos such as animation and music videos, and collaborating with individual video-uploaders in video making. However, their impacts and results are largely unknown, which motivates our study. Guided by Entertainment Education (EE) and Collaborative Governance (CG), we report, to our best knowledge, the first systematic study on how recreational video category and government-citizen collaboration would influence youth engagement focusing on 3347 COVID-19-related government-generated videos on Bilibili. This study reveals that recreational videos successfully promote youth engagement including interaction, feedback and sharing. Collaboration with individual uploaders in video making also has a substantially positive impact on youth engagement. Through an in-depth qualitative content analysis of user-generated commentaries, we further unpacked the unique values (e.g., trust work for youth participation) as well as latent limitations (e.g., imbalanced topic distribution) of the two new strategies. We discuss how the findings enrich EE and CG theoretically, and provide practical implications to effective and engaging communication strategies during crises. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Bosnia & Herzegovina is the 27th largest exporter of coal-fired energy in the world. Multiple organizations are warning about the dangerous rates of air polluting substances in many of the country’s larger cities. Youths in Bosnia & Herzegovina feel alienated from decision-making, making it hard for them to express their voice and concerns. This paper is looking at the situation from a human ecologist standpoint, studying how air pollution, the coal industry, and the youths are interconnected through economic, political, and societal structures. This paper aims to answer the question: How do a group of young inhabitants from a coal-producing region in Bosnia & Herzegovina experience their influence on the country’s climate impact through their coal mining industry, and how are they involved in change processes within the subject? Interviewing young people from the most coal-producing areas in the country, I wanted to showcase their perceived reality. Using different sociologist and human ecologist theories, this research presents a snapshot of youth’s reality in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The key finding of this paper is that youths in the country are hesitant to engage due to several factors, including lack of knowledge, social structures, and corruption. While they are most likely suffering an information incident, they are also part of a socially constructed denial. This research helps lift a young perspective into the debate and hopefully it can help to include youths in decision-making processes in the future.

The climate crisis has inspired youth-led activism across the world and young people now lead global campaigns and political protest on climate justice. However, aside from news media coverage of youth activism and the attendant focus on young people’s hand-drawn protest placards, relatively little is known about young people’s views on the actions needed to respond to the climate crisis or how they imagine environmentally-sustainable futures. This visual essay addresses that lacuna by exploring young people’s ideas about local climate actions. The images selected for consideration were created using Minecraft, the 3D block-building visualisation game, at workshops held in Ireland. Young people and their families were invited to create environmentally-sustainable futures at Minecraft workshops. Exploring these 3D designs as images, the essay documents young people’s visual representations of desirable climate actions and reflects on these Minecraft images to shed light on how young people envision alternative climate futures. These collective visions, or climate imaginaries, are powerful indicators of what young people imagine is possible in the future. In doing so, they present an alternative to the mainstream news and entertainment media preoccupation with dystopian constructions of the climate crisis. They also highlight the power of Minecraft as a visual medium to open up new ways of seeing nature and of envisioning nature-society relations. The selected images were also exhibited as part of the CLIMATE Look Lab 2022 held at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. The gallery invited researchers, community groups and artists to use the gallery as a lab space to engage visitors with our changing environment and to explore how images can change the visual narrative on climate change., Heritage & Values

Black youth face systemic educational and social barriers that impede their development and achievement. Research shows that mentoring equips youth to tackle these barriers and use their racial background as an asset. Additionally, college students have limited opportunities to engage in long-term service to local communities. The Heads Up Teen Mentoring Program was begun in September 2019 to provide local Black teens access to Black role models committed to helping them achieve their goals. We currently serve five local Black teens and pair them with five Black graduate student mentors. We engage in monthly group and one-on-one sessions with our teens to provide safe spaces for teens to build life skills and decompress. In this essay, we reflect on how our service as mentors has impacted both our teens and ourselves. We focus our reflection on how we are addressing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 and longstanding police brutality pandemics. Specifically, we have found virtual ways to continue group engagement such as virtual game nights, virtual escape rooms, and weekly challenges using group messaging. We also hosted a virtual healing session for our teens addressing systemic racism with a licensed psychologist and added monthly check-in sessions where teens can unload their stresses. We have learned that our teens struggle through these pandemics in ways similar to us, except they lack safe spaces to unpack these challenges. Teens value having a mentor to talk with who is genuinely interested in their growth. We, as mentors, value the opportunity to invest in Black youth and appreciate this service-based opportunity to develop leadership and mentoring skills. Offering virtual programming to address teens' concerns has been a mutually beneficial form of service by creating a safe space for both teens’ and mentors’ development and well-being.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

[EN] In this article, the authors have carried out a comparative analysis of students’ civic engagement in Ukraine and Canada. They have surveyed the students at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and compared the findings with the results of a study done by the Canadian researcher Catherine Broom at British Columbia University. Based on the research findings, the authors have identified Ukrainian students’ personal political and civic experience levels and compared them with the Canadian results. The study reveals Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards political and civic participation, democracy, the government in general and in comparison with Canadian data. The research results have identified the following key factors that influence Ukrainian students’ civic activity: students’ free time activities their attitudes and beliefs. According to the survey, gender, religious involvement, personality type, and family’s political involvement do not directly influence the students’ civic engagement. The survey has not reported any influence of school social study courses on civic engagement, stressing the importance of real-life experiences that result in attitudes and intrinsic motivation. The authors have also revealed examples of motivations and barriers for youth civic involvement.

Youth participation and communication for social change have been at the heart of debates in academic and development circles over the last thirty years. In response to criticisms that young people were merely seen as “beneficiaries” by local and international organizations, the latter have tried to readapt the way they frame, engage and strategize with the former in order to align with a new discourse in international development driven by the motto “nothing about us without us”. In 2011, UNICEF launched U-Report, a social platform available through SMS and social media, to understand the concerns of young people, amplify their voices and foster dialogue between youth and decision-makers. In Côte d’Ivoire, the initiative has been particularly successful. Since its launch in 2018, more than three million youth used the platform. Using the example of Côte d’Ivoire, considered a UNICEF “success story”, this study will analyse U-Report as a Communication for Development (C4D) tool that seeks to empower young people as agents of change in their communities. The research focuses on a specific modality of engagement available to young people through U-Report, that is, the possibility to mobilize and launch U-Actions: youth-led community actions for social change. Through surveys, interviews conducted with U- Reporters and UNICEF staff, and a case study analysis, this study will use the ecological system theory to uncover the multiple layers and influences that shape an individual’s decision to take action and question how youth engagement and participation online translate into social change offline. Findings from this research will underline that social media, the creation of personal and professional opportunities and a renewed sense of accountability are all factors influencing youth civic engagement through U-Actions. But while U-Report has been effective in developing a hybrid engagement model for young people by combining online and offline processes of participatio

Black youth face systemic educational and social barriers that impede their development and achievement. Research shows that mentoring equips youth to tackle these barriers and use their racial background as an asset. Additionally, college students have limited opportunities to engage in long-term service to local communities. The Heads Up Teen Mentoring Program was begun in September 2019 to provide local Black teens access to Black role models committed to helping them achieve their goals. We currently serve five local Black teens and pair them with five Black graduate student mentors. We engage in monthly group and one-on-one sessions with our teens to provide safe spaces for teens to build life skills and decompress. In this essay, we reflect on how our service as mentors has impacted both our teens and ourselves. We focus our reflection on how we are addressing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 and longstanding police brutality pandemics. Specifically, we have found virtual ways to continue group engagement such as virtual game nights, virtual escape rooms, and weekly challenges using group messaging. We also hosted a virtual healing session for our teens addressing systemic racism with a licensed psychologist and added monthly check-in sessions where teens can unload their stresses. We have learned that our teens struggle through these pandemics in ways similar to us, except they lack safe spaces to unpack these challenges. Teens value having a mentor to talk with who is genuinely interested in their growth. We, as mentors, value the opportunity to invest in Black youth and appreciate this service-based opportunity to develop leadership and mentoring skills. Offering virtual programming to address teens' concerns has been a mutually beneficial form of service by creating a safe space for both teens’ and mentors’ development and well-being.

Youth participation and communication for social change have been at the heart of debates in academic and development circles over the last thirty years. In response to criticisms that young people were merely seen as “beneficiaries” by local and international organizations, the latter have tried to readapt the way they frame, engage and strategize with the former in order to align with a new discourse in international development driven by the motto “nothing about us without us”. In 2011, UNICEF launched U-Report, a social platform available through SMS and social media, to understand the concerns of young people, amplify their voices and foster dialogue between youth and decision-makers. In Côte d’Ivoire, the initiative has been particularly successful. Since its launch in 2018, more than three million youth used the platform. Using the example of Côte d’Ivoire, considered a UNICEF “success story”, this study will analyse U-Report as a Communication for Development (C4D) tool that seeks to empower young people as agents of change in their communities. The research focuses on a specific modality of engagement available to young people through U-Report, that is, the possibility to mobilize and launch U-Actions: youth-led community actions for social change. Through surveys, interviews conducted with U- Reporters and UNICEF staff, and a case study analysis, this study will use the ecological system theory to uncover the multiple layers and influences that shape an individual’s decision to take action and question how youth engagement and participation online translate into social change offline. Findings from this research will underline that social media, the creation of personal and professional opportunities and a renewed sense of accountability are all factors influencing youth civic engagement through U-Actions. But while U-Report has been effective in developing a hybrid engagement model for young people by combining online and offline processes of participatio

The promise of the Rio 2016 Games was to influence the entire population of Brazil, but the major impact was expected to be on children and the youth. The development of youth education programs promoting Olympic and Paralympic values was one of the main commitments that organizers made in 2009 to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This article draws on the available literature on Olympic and Paralympic education and youth engagement and examines several of such programs previously implemented in such host cities as Beijing, Vancouver, and London. The purpose was to explore the ways in which implementing such educational legacy programs by the Rio 2016 and other sporting mega-event organizers can inspire and sustain youth engagement. The inductive thematic analysis was applied in the close examination of the content, strategies, and outcomes of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic education program. The results suggest that to leave an enduring youth legacy, policymakers, future mega-event organizers, and educators need to understand it as a continued endeavor beyond the hosting period and embed the related educational efforts into broader educational and youth-focused structures. This article also outlines lessons for youth engagement that can be drawn from Rio’s and other host cities’ Olympic and Paralympic education practices.

The promise of the Rio 2016 Games was to influence the entire population of Brazil, but the major impact was expected to be on children and the youth. The development of youth education programs promoting Olympic and Paralympic values was one of the main commitments that organizers made in 2009 to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This article draws on the available literature on Olympic and Paralympic education and youth engagement and examines several of such programs previously implemented in such host cities as Beijing, Vancouver, and London. The purpose was to explore the ways in which implementing such educational legacy programs by the Rio 2016 and other sporting mega-event organizers can inspire and sustain youth engagement. The inductive thematic analysis was applied in the close examination of the content, strategies, and outcomes of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic education program. The results suggest that to leave an enduring youth legacy, policymakers, future mega-event organizers, and educators need to understand it as a continued endeavor beyond the hosting period and embed the related educational efforts into broader educational and youth-focused structures. This article also outlines lessons for youth engagement that can be drawn from Rio’s and other host cities’ Olympic and Paralympic education practices.

According to many biblical accounts, children were included in worship experiences. Despite the efforts of many churches to engage, attract, and retain youth, there is still a lack of youth participation, involvement, and interest in the local church. This not only affects youth, but also the church. Unengaged youth do not have the opportunity to become future leaders of the church. In turn, churches will experience a void in future leadership and will be prohibited from flourishing. This qualitative historical study examined reasons for youth disengagement in an effort to find strategies for effective retention and engagement to benefit youth and the church. Existing literature pertaining to youth engagement in local church ministry will be examined. Data centered on the youth’s perspectives of youth leadership will be collected via surveys. The findings informed strategies that may engage youth in the local church, encourage youth leaders to grow in their relationship with the Lord, and prepare youth to serve Christ. Youth are vital for the future of the church, and Christ cares about youth. Therefore, this study may influence engagement approaches by providing opportunities for mentorship, engagement, and church leadership development.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze Youth engagement and construction of mediatic identities through digital technology. For this aim, a case study has been carried out: the use of YouTube by the Mexican student movement #YoSoy132. During the 2012 “Mexican Spring”, students and citizens not only occupied the streets, to quest for a “realdemocracy” or to express their dissent through very significant demonstrations, but they also occupied the Internet to protest. Through content analysis, this paper examines these new forms of political videoactivism among young adults. The main result of this research is, first, that the Internet has visibly increased youth political participation. And, second, that a resistence and contra-hegemonic identity is created through YouTube videos by young Mexicans.

This chapter reflects how the LED project has achieved systemic change, institutional learning and sustainability. The introduction of the LED course into the educational systems of five universities in four European countries has been challenging because it required capacity building at various levels: building a joint body of knowledge; testing, evaluating and revising teaching and learning methods; learning ICT skills; adapting to virtual team work; becoming a reflective educator - to name only the most relevant ones. In parallel, this new capacity had to be validated, ideally by full curricular integration of the new course, which required systemic change. The LED team therefore had to be in constant dialogue with its institutional environments and work hard to disseminate its outcomes from the beginning of the project. This process was very similar to the aims of the LED course itself: it enabled a community to work together, to create something which they cannot create alone and to consider this outcome as an added value that needs to be maintained. The sustainability concept of the LED programme therefore builds on three mutually reinforcing pillars: the LED course, the LED resources and the LED certificate. Each is explained in more detail in this chapter. We conclude with an emerging participatory and transdisciplinary methodology for landscape democracy, the landscape biography.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze Youth engagement and construction of mediatic identities through digital technology. For this aim, a case study has been carried out: the use of YouTube by the Mexican student movement #YoSoy132. During the 2012 “Mexican Spring”, students and citizens not only occupied the streets, to quest for a “realdemocracy” or to express their dissent through very significant demonstrations, but they also occupied the Internet to protest. Through content analysis, this paper examines these new forms of political videoactivism among young adults. The main result of this research is, first, that the Internet has visibly increased youth political participation. And, second, that a resistence and contra-hegemonic identity is created through YouTube videos by young Mexicans.

In Australia there is a strong risk adverse culture, in part due to the widely acknowledged conservatism of the population. There is an expectation that the different levels of governments minimise chances of conflicts or accidents with top-down regulations; these generally focus on sanitising some specific aspect of everyday lives dealing with personal liability. As such, many Australian urban environments are highly regulated, zoned, and controlled. Also at social level, children are not only segregated in specific facilities where they can be protected from potential dangers of the broader society, but as users of “youth-friendly spaces” they are also divided according to age groups, gender and vocation. Parks and playground are often planned and designed with a specific demographic in mind; facilities for small children are never co-located with the ones for young adults. The latter often are designed for structured activities such as for sports or learning, with limited considerations about how unstructured playful activities might be encouraged for and enjoyed by older children. This chapter reports on four years of public consultation processes undertaken at different level of government and in different contexts within South-East Queensland, one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. Our findings suggest that the ‘playground’ is seen as the realm of the children, who feel unentitled to comment on the broader urban fabric. The chapter reflects on how South-East Queensland cities are designed in a regimented and perhaps fragmented way which tends to exclude or underrepresent certain categories of residents, including children. It then compares the social segregation and zoning of South-East Queensland cities to intergenerational approaches typical of other cultural contexts and draw some recommendations on how to bridge this segregation gap in Australian cities.

The Digital Wellbeing Youth Engagement Consultation Project was conducted on behalf of Kids Helpline and Brisbane Youth Service. The consultation involved a mixed method approach to provide first-hand insights of young people’s expectations, experiences and needs for innovative technology solutions to promote youth wellbeing and strengthen the effectiveness of worker-young person support processes. This consultation was funded by the Optus Future Maker fund.

This paper examines youth engagement within the Global Landscapes Forum, a conference that took place in Paris, December 2015, and its contribution towards moving intergenerational equity forward. Youth are considered one of the main stakeholders when it comes to decision-making in long-term environmental issues as they are part of the current generation that are likely to face the implications of current decisions made. As such, using youth engagement to pave the way forward towards intergenerational equity is imperative to ensure sustainable development. The Global Landscapes Forum, is a large conference that brought together more than 3000 stakeholders from different backgrounds and that actively sought to engage youth through the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Furthermore, it provided them with a unique event to showcase youth innovation and ingenuity. The research that took place as part of this paper was done through action research where I was given the chance to not only be part of the monitoring and evaluation team of the Youth in Landscapes Initiative but also to take part and create solutions for the land-use challenges that we were given. This gave me the chance to interact as a member of the 50 youth participants and to gain insight into how engaged they are and what barriers affect youth engagement. After a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the factors required for youth engagement (level of awareness, access to resources, networking and capacity building, and motivation to engage others), it was concluded that the youth participants are engaged but lack access to resources to further their engagement. Another barrier that was also apparent is this notion of traditional legitimacy prompting a perceived lack of experience by the participants themselves or by experts. In order for the Global Landscapes Forum and similar scientific conferences to move towards meaningful youth engagement and intergenerational equity, a set of recommendations has be

The collaborative management arrangements in place for Nunavut’s National Parks demonstrated a shifting trend in Canadian resource management, where Indigenous people are increasingly involved in the governance of traditional lands. This work considered the arrangement in place for Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut, by exploring the effect that differential discourse had on policy formation and implementation. To focus the research on a single management issue youth engagement was selected for consideration. Employing a qualitative case study strategy of inquiry, data was collected by conducting 50 interviews and 7 focus groups in the park adjacent community of Pangnirtung. The project findings indicated that the Parks Canada Agency’s discourse maintained a dominant position within the management process, such that many of the youth engagement strategies implemented did not account for Inuit cultural practices. As a consequence of this omission, many of the implemented methods were unintuitive to the community, and in some cases served as a barrier to youth participation.

This paper examines youth engagement within the Global Landscapes Forum, a conference that took place in Paris, December 2015, and its contribution towards moving intergenerational equity forward. Youth are considered one of the main stakeholders when it comes to decision-making in long-term environmental issues as they are part of the current generation that are likely to face the implications of current decisions made. As such, using youth engagement to pave the way forward towards intergenerational equity is imperative to ensure sustainable development. The Global Landscapes Forum, is a large conference that brought together more than 3000 stakeholders from different backgrounds and that actively sought to engage youth through the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Furthermore, it provided them with a unique event to showcase youth innovation and ingenuity. The research that took place as part of this paper was done through action research where I was given the chance to not only be part of the monitoring and evaluation team of the Youth in Landscapes Initiative but also to take part and create solutions for the land-use challenges that we were given. This gave me the chance to interact as a member of the 50 youth participants and to gain insight into how engaged they are and what barriers affect youth engagement. After a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the factors required for youth engagement (level of awareness, access to resources, networking and capacity building, and motivation to engage others), it was concluded that the youth participants are engaged but lack access to resources to further their engagement. Another barrier that was also apparent is this notion of traditional legitimacy prompting a perceived lack of experience by the participants themselves or by experts. In order for the Global Landscapes Forum and similar scientific conferences to move towards meaningful youth engagement and intergenerational equity, a set of recommendations has be

The collaborative management arrangements in place for Nunavut’s National Parks demonstrated a shifting trend in Canadian resource management, where Indigenous people are increasingly involved in the governance of traditional lands. This work considered the arrangement in place for Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut, by exploring the effect that differential discourse had on policy formation and implementation. To focus the research on a single management issue youth engagement was selected for consideration. Employing a qualitative case study strategy of inquiry, data was collected by conducting 50 interviews and 7 focus groups in the park adjacent community of Pangnirtung. The project findings indicated that the Parks Canada Agency’s discourse maintained a dominant position within the management process, such that many of the youth engagement strategies implemented did not account for Inuit cultural practices. As a consequence of this omission, many of the implemented methods were unintuitive to the community, and in some cases served as a barrier to youth participation.

Non-PR, IFPRI5, DSGD

This report summarises the participatory action research (PAR) undertaken by the Brisbane North and West (BNW) Youth Connections Consortium service during 2010 and 2011. The objective of the service, which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), is to re-engage young people who have disengaged from education and are at risk of not achieving Year 12 attainment.The PAR element is facilitated by Queensland University of Technology, School of Public Health and Social Work (QUT). The PAR identifies key elements of the model of service as well as provides summary narratives of the PAR inquiries undertaken by Youth Connections staff and their co-participants during this period.

Student retention is an issue of perennial interest to educational institutions and is frequently a focus of pedagogical research and evaluation of programming, although some recent literature on factors affecting college student retention recommended attention to academic preparedness and student engagement as key variables influencing college student retention. This study explored the barriers and facilitators of retention and attrition of Helping Youth Pursue Education (HYPE) program participants in regular college programming, and the role of service supports and mentorship in improving the college experience of youth from underserved neighbourhoods. The qualitative research focused on how gains in interpersonal and problem-solving skills and connecting with one or more mentors at the College related to student success. The analysis revealed that, while the current program delivery model has resulted in steady improvement in outcomes relating to application, admission and student success for those who are “ready,” more could likely be done to improve participant experience and outcomes. Recommendations for improvement focused on strategies for the early identification of HYPE program participants likely to enter post-secondary education, faculty and staff development to enhance program delivery, and consideration of other program amendments to improve outcomes. Further work is needed to explore reasons why students do not follow-through on their learning plans, and to find ways to encourage them to do so.

Young people’s declining civic and political participation is the subject of much public and media angst. This article argues for a fresh look at the concern. Evidence to support a new way of viewing participation is drawn from a study of the way in which young people (early-teens to mid-twenties) spontaneously demonstrated their abilities to engage in civic and political actions in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch and the surrounding district of Canterbury during 2010 and 2011. The actions of these young people is set first in the context of relevant research, focusing on literature that critiques or offers alternative explanations of young people’s seeming lack of engagement in civic and political activities. This is followed by a study of the collective actions motivated and managed by young people after the New Zealand earthquakes, such as the Student Volunteer Army and the Ministry of Awesome. These actions are theorised against several explanatory frameworks in order to promote an understanding of a more youth-centric view of young people’s participation.