Civic Organisations in Context

Official policy discourses provide a context in which non-government, community and youth-led organisations develop and articulate notions and commitments to youth participation. As NGOs and community sector organisations take on more responsibility for the research, advocacy and service delivery once provided by the state, discourses and practices of youth participation proliferate. Many organisations advocate for youth participation in service and policy development, call for recognition of children and young people’s citizenship and for the development of youth-friendly communities, organisations, institutions and service systems. However, it is not always clear what is meant by these agendas, how these play out at an organisational level or how such discourses feature in the actual practices and decision-making processes of organisations. This chapter considers how non-government and youth-led organisations do the work of defining and promoting young people’s participation and negotiate the complex and messy relationship between government and community policy discourses and young people’s participation. Analysis of staff interviews, reports and website content of a number of non-government organisations examined the following: Aims and key activities: expressed on the websites, in strategy and programmatic documentation and in interviews;History and operation: the background and current resources of the organisation;Discourses: the ways ‘youth’, ‘participation’ and ‘digital media’ framed and articulated in both overt and implicit ways;Mechanisms for participation: the modes of participation promoted by the organisation both internally and externally.