Youth Assemblies (YAs) for Just Futures

The Project

Citizen’s Assemblies (CAs) are deliberative bodies composed of randomly selected citizens who gather to discuss, debate, and make recommendations on specific policy issues. The goal is to ensure a representative cross-section of society, giving ordinary people the opportunity to engage in policy-making processes, which are typically dominated by politicians and experts. CAs are designed to address complex issues where public consultation and consensus-building are essential.

A recent example of how young people can be involved in CAs comes from Ireland which held its first Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, over two weekends, in October 2022. The Assembly brought together 35 randomly selected young people, aged 7–17, from across Ireland to explore, discuss and create calls to action on how to protect and restore biodiversity in Ireland.

 

Drawing on these examples, the YPSFL proposes a Youth Assembly (YA) model in which young people, as key stakeholders in their own futures, work with YPSFL researchers and other stakeholders on a problem focussed, outcomes-oriented, research, discussion and community based consultation process.

The model can be reflexively modified and scaled (up/down) to suit particular contexts, issues and circumstances, but has a number of core features:

• Innovative ways to recruit representative cross sections of youth communities
• Structured activities, driven by specific problems and purposes
• Focussed on producing innovative outputs – for example, videos, podcasts, working papers, creative artefacts – that can effectively communicate outcomes of deliberative processes.
• Processes – for example, showcases, ‘town halls’, delegations, social media campaigns – that circulate and translate outputs to communities, businesses and governments.

Where appropriate, young people who participate can be paid a stipend in compensation for their time commitments. They might also be awarded a digitally badged micro-credential that reflects the capabilities and skills they bring to, and develop through their participation in the YA – refer to our model of Young People and Micro-creds for Sustainable, Regenerative and Just Futures

The Challenge

“…The energy transition is facing headwinds. From Wallaroo to Wimmera, proponents of large-scale wind and solar projects are finding that community engagement is getting harder.

The news this week that Norwegian energy giant Equinor and its Australian partner Oceanex have abandoned plans to apply to develop the Illawarra offshore wind zone highlighted concerns about whether the renewables push is losing the battle for “social licence”.

This concept refers to the acceptance granted to a company or industry by the community. Without it, projects become mired in protests, legal action and negative media coverage, and politicians grow fearful and fretful in making decisions…”

Caitlin Fitzsimmons  (2024) ‘A void filled with misinformation’: The communication struggle in Australia’s renewables rollout, The Age, October 19.

The Context

The Young People’s Sustainable Futures Lab (YPSFL) is a collaborative research lab that brings together researchers and other stakeholders to co-design young people’s sustainable futures in times of crisis and disruption. This sense of crisis and disruption is captured in the UN Secretary General’s proclamation that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 1 report from 2021:

“is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable…Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible”.

The Problem

In much youth research, policy and service delivery the very idea of youth voice and participation is an uncontested ‘good thing’. Indeed, a ‘youth participation’ agenda is a key element of most contemporary community and government youth programs. However, extensive research has suggested that what this ‘good idea’ looks like in everyday policy and practice seems to be a more complex and contested thing. For example, Which youth voices get to speak? Who is heard? Who is left out?

At a time that the UN Secretary General has called ‘a code red for humanity’, and when young people in their millions have taken to the streets to protest inaction in the face of climate change, there is an urgent need to engage in dialogue across generational divides about what sustainable and just futures might look for young people, future generations, and their communities.

Outcomes

Outputs

Innovative outputs – for example, videos, podcasts, working papers, creative artefacts – that can effectively communicate outcomes of YA’s deliberative processes.

Outcomes

Processes – for example, showcases, ‘town halls’, delegations, social media campaigns – that circulate and translate YA’s outputs to communities, businesses and governments, and which have the goals to inform and transform policy and practice in communities and regions for sustainable and just futures.

Digitally badged Micro-credential – young people’s development and use of skills and capabilities recognised through the award of digitally badged micro-credentials

Project Videos

See our mini-documentary, Crisis + Change + Growing Up in Geelong, and the final report from the research project: COVID-19 and Disadvantaged Young People’s Education and Employment Aspirations: A Longitudinal Study of Young People’s Transitions in Geelong, which provides an example of the sorts of artefacts that might be the outputs of these YAs.