So you want to address a youth issue – the topics are endless… tobacco, underage drinking, substance abuse, traffic safety, bullying, violence, injury, teen pregnancy, school drop-out , etc. – you get the picture – more to address than any one group can take on.  Each and every topic is vitally important and deserves the focus and attention of advocacy leaders to make a difference.  As you are working on addressing youth health and safety issues, don’t forget the ones you hope to impact the most – youth.  As the youth remind us all “Don’t do anything about us without us.”  But how involved do you want them to be and how do you get youth involved?

In 1995 the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) established a definition of meaningful youth participation as: “Meaningful youth participation involves recognizing and nurturing the strengths, interests, and abilities of young people through the provision of real opportunities for youth to become involved in decisions that affect them at individual and systemic levels.”  What is meaningful, nurturing, and involves youth and to what level?  As a coalition of national organizations, businesses, and federal partners National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) is often asked these questions by groups as they hope to address youth issues.  Sadly many companies and organizations develop programs and products then wonder how to involve youth or why youth aren’t accepting the program/product/program they developed.  To avoid hitting this implementation wall, it is important to engage and empower youth from the onset of the development of the youth project. If one waits until the project is designed to bring in youth the youth are less likely to feel ownership and less likely to embrace the ideas presented to them.

(more…)