Empowering Young People was published by Carnegie UK Trust and highlighted the need for a more proactive approach to youth participation to ensure all young people are involved.
The report drew on the experience of the Carnegie's Young People's Initiative, which has spent the past decade examining how to involve young people, both in and outside school, in decision making.
The report marks the end of the initiative and contains recommendations for both policy makers and practitioners. These include better empowerment of young people in formal politics and to reinvigorate the children's rights debate by lobbying for their inclusion in the new Equality and Human Rights Commission. It also calls for more training in effective youth participation for both young people and those working across public services.
Charlie McConnell, chief executive of the Carnegie UK Trust and one of the authors, said children are now the only group in society against whom discrimination is still acceptable.
- www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk.
