Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are four takeaways about how best to support youth action from the Childhood, Gender, and Youth on the Move conference in Tijuana, Mexico last week. 

• What are you doing to support youth activism? How can philanthropy help propel youth-led movements forward? 

• Read about what we can learn youth-led global feedback. 

At Global Fund for Children (GFC), our work is designed to benefit, empower, and safeguard children and youth around the world ­­– and a considerable percentage of social progress work shares the same goal. To this end, it’s critical for NGOs, INGOs, foundations, and social activists to better understand children’s and youth’s needs, opinions, and contexts. We also need to better understand how children and youth are already organising and galvanizing action to improve their own lives and communities.

The reality, however, is that the social sector is not moving quickly enough to include children and youth in their programming – whether this is be at the design phase, in decision-making processes, or after implementation. Youth participation is not just a matter of programmatic relevancy, nor should it be a tokenistic endeavour. It is critical to support – and sometimes step aside for – children and youth, because many are already changemakers within their communities.

Last week, the Childhood, Gender, and Youth on the Move conference in Tijuana, Mexico provided further insight for funders whose works supports youth leadership. In a Youth Promotion Strategy session, two social shifters and youth activists Melissa Rabanales (Agencia Ocote) and Monseratt Angulo (ReverdeSer Colectivo) shared some of the barriers that continue to stymie youth participation in social progress. Here are four reflections I took away:

  1. Youth are not the future, they are the present.
  2. Adultcentrism is a structural issue across the world. Adultcentrism refers to an asymmetrical power relationship between adults and youth, where the first group is viewed as superior and more authoritative than the latter in terms of their knowledge, experience, and understanding.
  3. Organisations must seek feedback from youth – and act on it.  
  4. Youth need deeper understanding and more support. 

Read the full article about the importance in empowering youth by Marco A. Blanco at Alliance.