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Youth
empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural
process whereby young people gain the ability, authority,
and agency to make decisions and implement change in their
own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and
adults. There are a variety of activities that may affect
youth empowerment, including
parenting, formal
education, community-based
training, governmental policy-making, and social
awareness-building.
The major
structural activities where youth empowerment happens
throughout society include:
False forms of
youth empowerment include:
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Consumer spending
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Popular culture
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Forced participation
The educational
philosophies of
John Dewey,
Paulo Freire and
John Holt are mainly premised on youth empowerment.
These philosopher/educator/writers believed schools would
have the greatest impact on students by centering learning
on each student's life experiences. Classroom activities
that empower youth include
student-centered learning,
popular education, and
service learning. In communities, youth empowerment
takes form through
youth voice and community
youth development programs.
Youth
empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to
civic engagement and
participatory democracy. Many local, state, provencial,
regional, national, and international government agencies
and nonprofit community-based organizations provide programs
centered on youth empowerment. Activities involved therein
may focus on
youth-led media,
youth rights,
youth councils, youth
activism, youth involvement in community
decision-making, and other methods.
Each major
political party in the United States, including the
Republicans, the
Democrats, and the
Green Party, as well as many major European, African,
South American, and Australian political parties have
statements supporting youth empowerment. Youth empowerment
is also a central tenet of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which every
country in the world (minus the U.S. and Somalia) has signed
into law.
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