Engaging Youth In Indigenous Planning And Governance How Do We Meaningfully Include Youth Voices?
Kelsey Taylor
Guidelines for Engaging Youth
Intent As many Indigenous communities undertake Comprehensive Community Plans and other types of planning processes, youth are increasingly becoming a significant aspect of these plans in the North and in the rest of Canada. While youth are a significant proportion of the population of Indigenous communities, especially in the North, there is little information to date on the inclusion of youth in planning surrounding Indigenous self-governance.
Methodology This information is being gathered by student planners working within an anticolonial/decolonizing framework. In addition to research, the information is produced by youth from Tla’amin First Nation. Youth are participating in “Hegus” Youth Empowerment Workshops, where they discuss planning, community issues, and the meaning of self-governance, as the community prepares to become a self-governing nation in April, 2016. These workshops are also aimed to inform the creation of a Youth “strategy”, which will guide leadership in promoting and including the voice of youth in the community.
Please contribute your experiences with youth engagement and planning! The aim is to continue to build a resource for planners, community champions, and others to improve the ways we plan by including youth voices in the process. Add your input to the middle panel. Find the responses on: https://youthplanning.wordpress.com/
The following guidelines are a work in progress. The aim is to learn from the knowledge and lived experience of others - youth and those who are working with young people. They are guided by the following questions: How can communities best engage youth in planning? How can we involve, educate and engage youth in self-governance? Engagement should be youth-guided and youth-led. Youth should be involved in an equal footing in the process, and the process should put youth voices first.Youth have an equal voice in how the process will be carried out. The process should be based on youth needs and perspectives, rather than applying adult frameworks, protocols, or structures to youth. Youth choose their level of engagement. A continuum of engagement should be available to youth, from lower levels of participation to youth-initiated participation, leaving the choice up to youth in terms of how they want to engage at that particular time. Level of comfort, ability, and other factors all play a role in how individuals will choose to participate. Youth are experts in their own lived experience. A large part of engaging youth is listening: active listening prioritizes youth voices. Check your assumptions. Do not assume youth capacity, and be open to changes that may need to be made to encourage or allow youth participation. Each context is unique. Be prepared with a variety of materials and tools, and acknowledge that each individual and group is unique. Setting, external events, individuals, and other factors change the group dynamic. The collective experience of the group will affect the impact or effectiveness of tools, and the length of time needed for activities. Have alternatives and supplementary ideas. Focus on capacity-building. Youth engagement should go beyond including youth voices in the planning process.Youth are the future leaders of communities, and building capacity among youth will help to build a “bottom-up” planning context.