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POLICYMAKER TOOLKIT
Our Policymaker Toolkit is here! The Toolkit is a document that will guide policymakers and decision-makers on how to meaningfully engage and involve young people. Meaningful youth engagement, particularly in road safety, is something we’ve championed since the very beginning. We believe that young people have a right to be involved in the issues that most affect their lives.
Our Toolkit highlights that meaningful youth participation happens when youth experiences, youth ideas, youth expertise, and youth perspectives are integrated into institutions that support the development and implementation of programs, policies, and decision-making efforts.
WHAT YOU CAN FIND IN THE TOOLKIT
Our upcoming Toolkit also emphasizes points on why it's so important to meaningfully involve youth in the decision-making and policymaking processes. It cites how youth are recognized as key stakeholders in the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and how they should be recognized in both formal and informal spaces of the policymaking process.
Our Toolkit provides the following resources; a model for meaningful youth participation, a road map to develop meaningful youth participation, a self-assessment scorecard, and some case studies to use as additional guides.
SUPPORTING MEANINGFUL YOUTH PARTICIPATION
To start mainstreaming meaningful youth participation into road safety policies it is important to consider three essential areas:
MINDSET: A fundamental shift in the perception of the role of young people in society - challenging bias and viewing young people as politically credible, experts of their own with lived experiences, and equal stakeholders with innovative approaches.
WAY OF WORKING: Systematically integrating meaningful youth participation as a cycle of continuous relationship building and taking a multi-method approach so young people can choose how they participate and on their terms.
COMMITMENT AND INVESTMENT: supporting meaningful youth participation needs commitment. First assess your organization's capacity to work with youth and assess current practices before investing and developing an inclusive, participatory culture. How committed are you to maintaining and investing in ongoing participatory approaches and outcomes?