Five Sets of Criteria to Assess Youth Involvement in Public Decision-Making

Five Sets of Criteria to Assess Youth Involvement in Public Decision-Making

The following five sets of criteria assessing the effectiveness of youth involvement in public decision-making were developed from a variety of sources (See References). Each of these five sets includes several questions, derived from research, that assess the effectiveness of youth involvement programs and activities. Go to each of the five sets by clicking on the underlined titles. Your organization or institution can develop a clear understanding of their readiness to promote youth involvement in your decision-making by answering the following questions.

1. Relationship between Youth Involvement and Sponsor Organization Goals

    a) How do the characteristics of the sponsoring organization relate to the youth involvement?
    (purposes and planned outcomes, history of youth involvement, the nature of the youth leaders and
    audience, policy framework, resources assigned, numbers of youth involved, number of adults to be
    involved).

2. The Nature of the Youth Involvement

a) How will youth participate collectively; is it episodic, developmental, structural or are various youth
groups being linked together? (See this section for an explanation of the terms developed by CMHA 1995.)

b) How will youth be involved individually? as core leaders? as volunteers, as attendees, as
recipients?

c) What are the roles to be assigned to youth? specific tasks, to be consulted, as initiators, other?

3. The Processes to be Used

a) Are basic principles of youth participation being respected?

b) Are barriers being addressed?

c) Are enabling factors in place?

d) Are the developmental needs of youth being met?

e) Are the youth accountable?

f) Are adults prepared to assist youth to participate?

4. How are these Criteria Applied to Different Types of Decision-Making?

a) Youth Representatives on Governing Board

b) Youth Representatives on Regular Committees