“We make a direct impact on people's lives”: Youth empowerment in the context of a youth‐led participatory budgeting project

Abstract

Participatory budgeting [PB] is a democratic process whereby community members determine how to spend governmental funds. Youth‐led PB is relatively new, occurring in select U.S. cities. During youth‐led PB, youth collect ideas, develop proposals, and advertise community improvement projects for which they, citywide, cast deciding votes. The study examined opportunities for the empowerment youth at each stage of a youth‐led PB project. Data collection included individual interviews with 31 youths and adult stakeholders, 3 focus groups with youths, and 7 observations of meetings. The data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods. Findings align well with the psychological empowerment literature and demonstrate several opportunities for empowerment throughout the PB project, including feeling in charge of the process, understanding and allocating resources, and influencing positive community change. Findings also demonstrate potential barriers to empowerment, including understanding bureaucratic decision making, and influencing policy. PB is relevant to furthering our understanding of the empowerment of youth. The youths who participated in the present study expressed feelings of competence, purpose, and an ability to use the skills learned to engage fellow youths in the PB process. Additional empirical research is needed to examine the dimensions of empowerment at each stage of the PB process.

Factors affecting youth empowerment and entrepreneurial initiatives: Social implications and way forward

“…It is evident from the results that the respondents, drawn from different parts of the country, are of the view that government policies have a significant positive impact on the motivation of youngsters to embark on entrepreneurial initiatives and empower themselves. Similar findings have been reported by Augsberger et al ( 2019 ) in the US, Ogamba ( 2019 ) in Nigeria, and (Geza et al, 2022 ) in South Africa. This reinforces our finding that policies devised by the government can either empower youth or suppress their entrepreneurial motivations.…”

Evaluating Youth Empowerment: The Construction and Validation of an Inventory of Dimensions and Indicators

“…As a result of the above, and in accordance with that posited by various authors (Augsberger et al, 2019;Law, et al, 2019;Speer et al, 2019;Muturi et al 2018;Brickle & Evans-Agnew, 2017;Huscroft-D'Angelo et al, 2017;Mohajer & Earnest, 2009;Özmete, 2011;Wagaman, 2011), we view youth empowerment as a process and a result that increases the possibilities young people have to decide and act consistently on everything that affects their own life.…”

Young Canadians’ Desire to Change the World and the Adults Who Support Them

“…Regarding youth engagement, the picture is again unclear. Youth advisory councils have tended to engage more privileged youth [27,28], youth in some ethnic communities may be reluctant to participate due to a lack of inclusive practices in many programs [29], and youth participation in programs can decrease as youth age and gain more autonomy over decisions to participate [30]. All of these findings suggest that youth engagement should differ, to some extent, based on demographics or group membership.…”