1. Youth Empowerment
The process of youth empowerment involves the encouragement of children and
youth to be in charge of their own lives. This is done by not only addressing their
situation but even acting towards improving their accessibility to resources besides
transforming their consciousness through their attitudes, values, and beliefs. So the
aforementioned is basically aimed at the improvement of the quality of life. It’s
achievement lies in maximizing the participation in the programs of youth
empowerment. There are several models which can be used while organizing such
programs. A variety of such initiatives are underway all across the globe. These
programs may be initiated by private organizations, schools, non-profit organizations,
and government organizations. Empowerment of youth differs from their development
because the focus of the latter lies more on the growth of individuals, while the
process of empowering them revolves around bringing a significant change in the
community but which ultimately depends upon the capacity of each individual to
develop.
2. Elements of Youth
Empowerment: Empowerment
Theory
The main focus of the theory of empowerment remains more on the
processes which enable participation besides enhancing control using
shared decision-making. It even provides opportunities for learning,
practicing, and increasing skills. It suggests that the engagement of
youth in pro-social, community-enhancing, and meaningful activities
that are defined and even controlled by the youth themselves
contribute towards the attainment of their vital skills besides the
responsibilities and even confidence which is essential for them to
develop essential skills, a sense of responsibility, and even the
confidence which holds importance in boosting one’s health and
productivity.
3. Elements of Youth
Empowerment: Types of
Empowerment and Goals of
Empowerment
The examination of six independent dimensions takes place in youth empowerment.
Cultural, social, economic, organizational, community, and psychological. Cultural
empowerment is aimed at the recreation of cultural practices besides redefining
cultural norms and rules for youth. The dimensions of empowerment facilitate the
working of youth empowerment programs in any one or several aspects of their lives.
The programs which are empowering youth enhance the health of the lives of
underprivileged youth who may be at risk besides increasing its quality and standard.
The five main competencies of a healthy youngster include: 1) high self-esteem 2)
decision-making skills 3) self-control 4) morally upright belief system and 5) pro-social
connectivity. Developmental programs and interventions need to have their base on
the aforementioned competencies in order to bring out positive outcomes from youth.
4. Elements of Empowerment:
Measurable Empowerment and
Positive Development Settings
In the last twenty years, quality of life has become quite important as a measurement
unit as far as evaluating how successful the youth empowerment programs have been
is concerned. However, quality of life cannot be defined in any standard manner. Its
usefulness remains not only as a goal for programs but even to indicate their
effectiveness. The dependence of the quality of life of a person remains on the
evaluation of the different aspects of a person’s life with subjectivity. Programs
concerning youth empowerment thrive in developmental settings which are positive.
The aforementioned promote connections, confidence, and confidence among youth.
The two main features of such settings include support for mattering and efficacy and
supportive relationships. The latter may be defined as those which are between non-
familial adults and youth and which foster respect and trust. The focus of the support
towards mattering and efficacy remains in youth being instrumental and active agents
bringing about a change within their respective communities besides collective
decision-making and even holding their own voice amongst adults.
5. Youth Empowerment
Programs and Examples
Various types of programs, aimed at empowering young adults, are being conducted all over the
world. The key reason for the success of a majority of them is that they are operated in more
than one setting. The advantages of the aforementioned include increased self-efficacy,
increased self-esteem, improvement in academic performance, positive behavior and better
social skills. Young girls and women who participate in such programs feel a sense of power
within themselves. Regardless of any specific methods or goals, the empowering effects are
inclusive of the improvement of the self-efficacy, self-esteem, and well-being of women besides
the enhancement of their social status which takes place when they are taught organizational
and technical skills. Other programs empowering youth focus on alleviating poverty. Some
empowerment programs make the use of the ‘social action model’ which basically aims at
making disadvantaged people educated, organized, and empowered which would enable them
to bring about a significant change. Such programs are intended for the advocacy of constructive
confrontations which give those people more social power who are not considered to be
advantaged. Youth Empowerment Foundation is a not-for-profit body which works for uplifting
the underprivileged youngsters in the society. Pots of Hope is another program aimed at
reducing the vulnerability of youngsters towards Aids and HIV using projects of income security,
awareness, information, and education as its tools. Young India Foundation empowers youth
through their direct engagement in electoral politics, which has never been done before by any
organization at least in India.
6. Government Involvement in
Empowerment
Youth empowerment is perceived as a gateway to democracy building, civic engagement, and
intergenerational equity. Local, state-level, provincial-level, regional-level, national-level, and
even international-level community-based non-profit organizations and government agencies
offer programs for empowering youth. Many movements for the aforementioned have come
into existence in the European Union. These include the 2009 Austrian, Students’ Protests, the
Extinction Rebellion, and Fridays for Future. The European Parliament and the European
Commission are tasked with youth empowerment and engagement. Several projects and
initiatives have been set in motion by the two aforementioned bodies. The corporation for these
programs is received from many international non-governmental organizations. Youth
empowerment, in the United States, occurs in schools and homes besides through non-
governmental organizations. Major youth empowerment activities, which are structural ones,
are taking place throughout America and which would be inclusive of education reform,
organizational planning, and community decision-making. Educational empowerment aiming at
youth empowerment include service learning, popular education, and student-centered
learning. In the Republic of Ireland, the Comhairle na nὄg is the youth council. These council
receive encouragement to facilitate the participation of people from every walk of life and for
the tackling of local issues which the youth of the country may be grappling with. The
Commonwealth of Nations, comprising of around fifty-three member countries, have signed up
for the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (2014-2015). This plan promotes
mainstreaming of youth besides containing thirteen points of action for governing bodies.
7. Youth Community Support
Activities
Community support activities for youth are offered by different institutions and services and vary according
to the community and culture. The various types of youth work include religion-based work, school-based
work, detached work, and centre-based work. Work for youth focuses on five areas primarily and which are:
integrity in actions, informal and friendly atmospheres, committed association by adults and youth,
emphasizing on relationship and voluntary participation, and focusing on youth. There are several
approaches one can adopt while working for youth. While the setting for community-based activities vary
throughout communities, youth leadership may be found in programs or organizational planning, evaluation,
facilitation, design, and research. This approach, which centers around youth, has proven to be effective in
promoting and even sustaining youth engagement besides for its effectiveness across social, cultural, and
even other boundaries. Youth empowerment schemes are inclusive of programs based on youth
participation across schools, organizations, and governments. This includes the involvement of youth as
advocates, decision-makers, evaluators, teachers, researchers, and planners. Centre-based work for youth
takes place in the premises dedicated for it like sports facilities, advice centers, and coffee bars. Faith-based
work for youngsters revolves around religious morals and its purpose remains to share or engender religious
views. Programs for youth development seek the identification of what young people need from an
educational and social perspective besides fulfilling those needs through activities which are intentional and
structured and which revolve around youth development which is community-based and positive.
8. One World Youth Project
One World Youth Project is a non-profit corporation based in the United States
of America. Its goal is the enhancement of education towards a generation
which is more empathetic, discerning, and empowered. Around twelve years
back, it launched a program called One World Hub. This program, which is
based on service learning, provides guidance to students of universities on
how to lead a global educational curriculum through middle school and high
school besides connecting these classrooms of secondary schools with their
partner classrooms of other countries. The curriculum of this global education
is inclusive of units such as service-learning, community mapping, outlining
global challenges, and cultural exchange. This program is divided into three
semesters. The first one involves a training course which is intensive. It’s
syllabus mainly includes the methods of using the latest technological tools for
teaching. Students gain proficiency in leading the three aforementioned
dimensions of this program. In the second phase, students provide mentorship
or teach the local youth empowering them with a skill set which is global. This
project has enabled university students to build an understanding of that
particular community in which they are studying.
9. Positive Youth Development
Positive youth development is designed to optimize the development of youngsters
through its programs. This prosocial and intentional approach provides adolescents
with a constructive and productive engagement which enhances, utilizes, and
recognizes their strengths besides promoting positive outcomes of youth through the
provision of opportunities and fostering of positive relationships besides furnishing
them with the support they need for strengthening their leadership skills. The main
factor which makes this youth development program stand out from all the other
approaches is its conscious effort to not adopt a corrective approach towards the
development or behavior of youth which is socially unacceptable. Youth development
focuses on optimizing human potential. The recognition of contextual variability in
different experiences which are optimal and healthy remains the highlight of such
forums for youngsters. Eight elements are given most importance here and which are:
igniting a sense of optimism for one’s future, providing recreation, developing new
skills, helping them to not only recognize conflicting values but even develop their
own, foster relationships with adults and peers which are supportive and of high
quality, allowing self-discovery which includes strengths and interests and even
identities, giving them the sense of ownership and belonging, and lastly, giving them a
sense of safety physically as well as emotionally.
10. Benefits and Criticism of Youth Empowerment
• Benefits: Most participants of youth empowerment programs have not only seen
but even experienced the benefits of the same. When the empowerment and
involvement of youth is practiced over a period of time, it becomes embedded in
the culture of communities and organizations. Not only organizational bodies but
even individuals benefit from such programs which are empowering. Both of
them become more responsive and communicable to the youngsters of the
community, which not only leads to improvements in the program but even
increases the participation of youth.
• Criticism: Many people who are not in favour of such programs point out that the
basic approach here is a youth focused one. More emphasis is given on what goes
wrong in the lives of youngsters instead of what goes on right. This builds an
image of youth as an issue which needs a resolution and creates the belief within
people that the developmental process is more about overcoming risk. This may
prove to be a deterring factor for youth to join developmental programs. This
model, which is not considered to be a very safe one, may undermine the fact
that adolescence is that period of life when new concepts and skills are mastered.
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Saif Ali Sajid Amir
