The CIVICUS Youth Action Team is a group of voting members of CIVICUS, led by the youth and acting for the youth to be meaningfully represented and engaged in all of the alliance’s structures, governance, strategies, and activities. But it goes beyond.
The Youth Action Team perceives civic space as the final frontier and wants to make sure the youth have the tools to fully engage here. As a place for co-creation and designing innovative projects, the YAT sets its own agenda and work plan to make sure they develop projects in the areas that are currently more critical for young activists, social innovators and human right defenders.
The CIVICUS Youth Action Team recently finished its report on youth trends in activism and civic space expansion (also available in Spanish and French). This paper analyses the physical and digital developments, strategies and emerging practices used by young activists. These findings highlight possible areas to strengthen young people’s role in civic society and help catalyse the construction of healthy and sustainable democracies. While this is the first step to further exploring activists’ role in revitalising civic space, much more research needs to be done. Above, you can find the webinar we hosted on the 5th of August, expanding on this discussion.
Youth engagement
The Youth Action Team define youth engagement as:
Meaningful adolescent and youth engagement is an inclusive, intentional, mutually-respectful partnership between adolescents, youth, and adults whereby power is shared, respective contributions are valued, and young people’s ideas, perspectives, skills, and strengths are integrated into the design and delivery of programs, strategies, policies, funding mechanisms, and organizations that affect their lives and their communities.
The Youth Action Team’sgoals
Goal 1: Digitally connect and raise awareness on local youth activists trends (Advocacy)
- Youth Ambassadors Programme
- CIVICUS Monitor Thematic Report on Youth
- Updating the Resourcing Youth Playbook
- CIVICUS Youth Newsletter and Engagement Opportunities
Goal 2: To facilitate exchange and solidarity networks among CIVICUS youth members (Learning and capacity development)
- Games Nights/Jam Sessions Informal Networking and Learning Events
- Civic Space Hackathons
- Spaces for Collective Care
Goal 3: To propose an innovative structure for meaningful youth engagement in CIVICUS (Leadership)
- YAT Accountability Strategy
- Accountability Dialogues
- Providing Feedback on CIVICUS Youth Strategy
The Youth Action Team’svalues and principles
- Diversity & Inclusion – We encourage active participation in a diverse environment and enable justice for all, making sure all feel welcome and at home.
- Commitment– We honor our commitments and make sure to hold ourselves and the team accountable.
- Integrity – We believe and practice respect, trust, honesty and kindness to each other and all our partners and stakeholders
- Innovation – We promote disruptive innovation that will create a radical change in the way that youth can participate
- Sustainability – We aim for impactful and long-lasting solutions to create positive social change that transforms communities
- Authenticity – We show up in the space exactly as we are, bringing our whole selves to each interaction, acknowledging both our limitations and unique skill set.
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