IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/comdev/v40y2009i4p346-358.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Participation in Youth Community Action Projects: Opportunities and Barriers

Author

Listed:
  • Kristi S. Lekies
  • Barbara Baker
  • JoAnne Baldini

Abstract

This study examined the extent of youth participation in community service, community development, and other types of community projects. Adult leaders ( n = 70) of Youth Community Action (YCA) projects in New York State completed a survey about the activities of youth and barriers to participation. Overall, the youth were highly involved in project planning, decision making, leadership, and implementation activities but less involved in aspects of publicity and the organizational infrastructure such as financing and organizing meetings. Time was the most frequently mentioned barrier to youth participation. Some differences based on the age of participating youth were noted. Recommendations include identifying ways youth can take on greater roles and responsibilities, providing resources and support to adult leaders and youth, and finding ways for older and younger youth to work together. Topics for further research are suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristi S. Lekies & Barbara Baker & JoAnne Baldini, 2009. "Assessing Participation in Youth Community Action Projects: Opportunities and Barriers," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 346-358, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:comdev:v:40:y:2009:i:4:p:346-358
    DOI: 10.1080/15575330903279648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15575330903279648
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/15575330903279648?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger A. Hart, 1992. "Children's Participation: From tokenism to citizenship," Papers inness92/6, Innocenti Essay.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berit Skauge & Anita Skårstad Storhaug & Edgar Marthinsen, 2021. "The What, Why and How of Child Participation—A Review of the Conceptualization of “Child Participation” in Child Welfare," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Dena Arya & Matt Henn, 2021. "COVID-ized Ethnography: Challenges and Opportunities for Young Environmental Activists and Researchers," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Mona Treude & Ralf Schüle & Hans Haake, 2022. "Smart Sustainable Cities—Case Study Südwestfalen Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    4. Landberg, Åsa & Kaldal, Anna & Eriksson, Maria, 2025. "Fighting for opportunities for protection and rehabilitation after child sexual abuse," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Usubillaga, Juan & Fitz-Symonds, Sammi & Forrester, Donald & Roberts, Louisa & Diaz, Clive & Evans, Lilly, 2024. "Doing with or doing to? A realist case study of factors affecting the implementation of guidance on child sexual exploitation in Wales," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    6. Richard Peter Bailey & Suria Angit, 2022. "Conceptualising Inclusion and Participation in the Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.
    7. Richard Maclure, 2017. "Youth Reflexivity as Participatory Research in Senegal: A Field Study of Reciprocal Learning and Incremental Transformations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 251-261.
    8. Gazit, Matan & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2020. "Disadvantaged youth’s participation in collective decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    9. Anna Massons-Ribas & M. Àngels Balsells & Neus Cortada, 2021. "The Participation of Children and Adolescents in the Protection System: The Case of the Spanish Legislation," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-13, July.
    10. Duramy, Benedetta Faedi & Gal, Tali, 2020. "Understanding and implementing child participation: Lessons from the Global South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    11. Tritter, Jonathan Quetzal & McCallum, Alison, 2006. "The snakes and ladders of user involvement: Moving beyond Arnstein," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 156-168, April.
    12. Matthew Morton & Paul Montgomery, 2010. "PROTOCOL: Youth empowerment programs for improving self‐efficacy and self‐esteem of adolescents," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 1-38.
    13. Nir, Tal & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "The framed right to participate in municipal youth councils and its educational impact," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 174-183.
    14. Harriet Thew & Lucie Middlemiss & Jouni Paavola, 2022. "“You Need a Month’s Holiday Just to Get over It!” Exploring Young People’s Lived Experiences of the UN Climate Change Negotiations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, April.
    15. Marta Estellés & Francisco José Amo & Jesús Romero, 2021. "The Consensus on Citizenship Education Purposes in Teacher Education," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    16. Gerdts-Andresen, Tina, 2021. "A scoping review of when and how a child’s view is weighted in decision-making processes in law proceedings," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    17. Michel Edenborough & Fran Gale, 2025. "Reimagining Socially just Environments through Children’s Perspectives: An Innovative Approach for Civic Participation," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 18(2), pages 543-560, April.
    18. Ralph Sandland, 2017. "A Clash of Conventions? Participation, Power and the Rights of Disabled Children," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 93-103.
    19. Haarberg, Frøydis Lønborg, 2024. "What do we know about children’s representation in child protection decisions? A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    20. Sala-Torrent, Mireia & Planas-Lladó, Anna, 2024. "Enhancing youth Voices: Exploring community participation through youth workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:comdev:v:40:y:2009:i:4:p:346-358. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCOD20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.