Expert Seminar “Youth Policy Approaches for access to social rights of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods”
Strasbourg, France, 1-3 December 2010
Speech by Alison Cook, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m very pleased to be here and to be able to contribute to this seminar. I apologise for Eunice Campbell-Clark’s absence, the Congress’ rapporteur on youth, who is detained on council business in the United Kingdom.
I am here today representing the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. I am able to be a member of the Congress because I am a local councillor who has been elected by the citizens living in my local community. If the Congress, or its predecessor the Conference of Local Authorities to be exact, was set up over 50 years ago, it was because the Council of Europe understood that local councillors, being closer to citizens, are in a better position to understand citizens’ needs and wishes at local level and are therefore better able to help local people. Thanks to this proximity to our fellow citizens, local councillors are able to campaign on local issues which affect the people living in our towns and cities, and to develop links with all parts of our communities. Your member of parliament can seem a long way away, in your country’s capital city, but your local councillor is just around the corner.
This is why local and regional authorities have a very important role to play in addressing the issue of the integration of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods – these neighbourhoods are part of our communities, and these young people are citizens of our catchment areas.
This is why the Congress adopted a resolution on this issue during its session last October. For those of you who are not at ease with the Council of Europe jargon, a resolution is a text which the Congress addresses to local and regional authorities in all 47 member states. This text contains proposals for policy and action on a particular subject. Our resolution on the integration of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods is the fruit of the work of the former Congress Committee on Culture and Education. The Committee discussed the matter on several occasions, hearing from experts in the field, including Dr Howard Williamson who compiled the report which accompanied our discussions, and exchanging our own best practices from our cities, towns and regions. Eunice, our Rapporteur, then summarised our conclusions and policy proposals in this resolution.
One thing that was clear to us from the outset was that our proposals must be in conformity with the Congress’ principle of promoting active youth participation as laid down in our European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. I am sure many of you already know this Charter and know that it does not treat young people as victims or as a vulnerable group that needs protection. Nor does it allow for young people to be treated as objects of adults’ intervention, with the adults assuming they know what is best for young people – a common misconception. Young people are seen as active players in organisations and in community life, as partners with lots of potential, talents and strengths. This is why the resolution stresses that young people’s voices must be heard when policies are formulated and calls on local and regional authorities to raise awareness on the Charter and ensure its implementation.
We in the Committee on Culture and Education understood from our research and from our own experience in our cities, towns and regions, that not all young people enjoy the same opportunities and advantages. Some enjoy stable family lives and go from school to university, sometimes are lucky enough to travel abroad, meet different people, enjoy different experiences, all while benefiting from the support of family and school.
Other young people however experience vulnerability and exclusion. Young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods tend not to experience a tranquil transition to adult life. We saw that this road can be peppered with various obstacles. Young people in this group are less secure and more susceptible to be dependent on chance, for example, if they have few or no qualifications, if they are from minority ethnic groups, have disabilities, or are from a family which often faces unemployment or other factors that complicate matters further. These young people seldom face just one difficulty in isolation. Often, it is a constellation of problems such as drop-out, lack of self-belief, alienation, perhaps substance misuse, criminality, homelessness and problems with mental health.
Our research and exchanges of our best practices also showed us that devising a policy to address these problems is not simple. The multiple difficulties faced by young people from disadvantaged areas mean that a “one-size fits all” policy approach is not appropriate. The challenge we, local and regional elected representatives, are facing is to be more inventive in the definition of our youth policies so we are able to reach out to young people from all walks of life.
A young person struggling with homelessness and substance misuse is less likely to engage in new activities than someone who is in employment, has experienced formal and non-formal education or who has built up social and professional networks. Their needs will be completely different. Local and regional authorities must take this into account and incorporate programmes into youth policy which enable young people to build relationships and establish communication and understanding. More time, effort and imagination are required to convince such young people of the capacity of policies to improve their situation.
So what conclusions did we draw from our discussions? The first step in our eyes is that local and regional elected representatives must ensure that municipal and regional youth departments are set up, or strengthened if they already exist, and that they have the capacity and competences to design effective, evidence-based policies and programmes. Obviously, in the spirit of our Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life, we must do this with the full and meaningful participation of young people from disadvantaged areas. We can also turn to the voluntary sector for support.
Local and regional authorities must also set aside the misconception I mentioned earlier that adults know better than young people. We must be prepared to engage in dialogue with young people, to consult them and work with them. By involving them in the planning and decision-making processes, not only will we ensure that policies and programmes are responsive to their needs and expectations, but young people will feel motivated and, hopefully, develop some feeling of ownership and responsibility for these programmes and for their own future. This also implies that we must find the ways and means to engage with young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. As laudable as our Charter on participation is, it cannot change the fact that these young people are less likely to beat an active path to opportunities for participation such as youth councils or parliaments than youth from advantageous backgrounds.
One of the examples provided by a fellow committee member shows that listening to the wishes and needs of a group of disadvantaged young people can enable local and regional councils to provide appropriate responses. In this case, complaints were received about a group of young people committed to skateboarding in Saint-Priest in France. Local residents felt the skaters should not be skateboarding in public places. The skaters had nowhere else to go. The municipality asked the skaters what they needed. Far from being complicated or costly, it turned out that their demands were reasonable and easy to meet. So the municipality agreed to support both procedurally and financially the young people to plan and implement their own skate-park. The skaters were happy, they had an appropriate, dedicated space in which to pursue their activity. The local residents were happy and stopped complaining because they were no longer disturbed by the skaters and no longer ran the risk of being mown down when they stepped out of their homes.
One of the elements of the ENTER! Project being run by the Directorate of Youth and Sport is the long term training course for youth workers and youth leaders working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Through the implementation of a concrete project, the participants will develop their skills and competencies in setting up projects to help youth in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
The members of the Congress Committee on Culture and Education feel that supporting youth-initiated and youth-run projects is a particularly constructive and positive approach. Firstly, it is a good means of ensuring that youth projects meet young people’s needs and aspirations because the projects have been designed by young people, for young people and are based on an analysis of young people’s needs. Furthermore, and very importantly, projects initiated and led by young people give some purpose to their lives, providing them with experience in project management and the opportunity to interact with project partners. In particular, running their own projects can help young people to gain self-confidence which is so often lacking.
Thus, we urge local and regional authorities to provide accessible and meaningful opportunities for disadvantaged youth to promote their social integration by establishing frameworks for co-operation and development, proposing advice and guidance, as well as organising activities, and in particular supporting, either financially or in kind, their projects with a social, economic or human purpose.
I spoke earlier, ladies and gentlemen, about the skaters in Saint Priest who in fact just needed a dedicated space for their skating. Dedicated space is very important because so often in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, it is what is lacking. This is why our resolution invites local and regional authorities to provide facilities, such as youth or community centres, or recreation areas where young people can meet or carry out their activities. In the spirit of the Congress participation Charter, however, we must not forget to give young people from disadvantaged areas a say in how these spaces are organised and used.
In his report, Howard Williamson gives a couple of examples of mentoring schemes. One very interesting project was set up by a young man in the Netherlands for 9 to 16 year olds. He established weekly indoor soccer training coupled with compulsory school and work guidance as well as training in social behaviour skills (community responsibility) and respect for older people. This experience has evolved into a buddy ‘peer-to-peer’ system whereby former participants in the training sessions support new participants. This sort of project is interesting because many young people benefit from more individualised attention and support. Peer support can help young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire a certain level of self-confidence and competence as a basis for effective ‘life management’ and to move forward more autonomously.
This is why we encourage local and regional authorities to explore the possibility of setting up mentoring or ‘buddy’ systems. We also invite them to offer away-from-home opportunities so that young people can experience and learn from new horizons and are able to see themselves as part of the global society.
The resolution recognises that policies seeking to achieve the social inclusion of young people from disadvantaged areas should be opportunity-focused and support young people’s integration into society, for example by promoting access to education and training, facilitating their entry into the labour market, by providing decent housing and healthcare, access to public services, social rights and social services, to basic services such as transport, leisure, culture, access to media and communication tools, as well as to legal and financial services such as loans.
The Resolution provides some concrete means as to how local and regional authorities can go about reaching out to these young, often marginalised people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and promoting their social inclusion. We propose that local and regional authorities provide access to decent housing and to free healthcare. Drug and alcohol education and information programmes and activities are needed. Access to free education, free learning materials and free or subsidised transport to educational establishments will go some way to encouraging young people to pursue their education.
Work experience and training should be offered to young people as they can help them to develop the capacity to reason, a critical eye and a better understanding of themselves and the world. Any work experience and training that is provided for young people should be closely linked to job opportunities and job creation.
Combating exclusion and promoting the integration of young people from disadvantaged areas also requires local and regional authorities to provide information, advice and guidance in careers, training and educational possibilities – both formal and non-formal – to facilitate the transition from school or joblessness to active life, and to facilitate access to ICTs to promote e-participation.
All of these aspects are covered in the Congress’ resolution on the integration of young people from disadvantaged areas. It is now up to us, local and regional elected representatives, youth workers, youth organisations, researchers, and young people themselves to make sure these policies are implemented.
For its part, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe welcomes the opportunity to co-operate on this initiative, aimed at devising policy guidelines on the access to social rights for young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In this regard, the Congress’ new Current Affairs Committee, which will be taking up the issue, looks forward to continuing the fruitful co-operation with the Directorate of Youth and Sport and the Directorate of Social Cohesion in the future.
Thank you for your attention.