How to Support Children and Young People's Campaigning

This 12-page guide from the United Kingdom (UK)-based Participation Works provides information on how to support children and young people in designing, delivering, and evaluating campaigns to bring about change. While designed for the British context, this brief is intended to be useful to youth-led organisations in other countries.

The reader is first introduced to what "campaigning" means - essentially, children and young people participate in organised action with specific objective(s), in an effort to bring about change in law or policy, an institution, and/or behaviour. As argued here, "[t]he process of campaigning can give children and young people opportunities to gain many new skills and learn about the community and wider world in which they live. Almost always they will be working with their peers. They will be communicating and making decisions together. Many will take on leadership roles."

The guide next examines legal considerations associated with enabling children and young people to campaign. Campaigning is described here as central to a thriving democracy, but Participation Works stresses the need to learn about and respect various laws put in place to protect children. One case study illustrates these points: the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) has developed a campaign calling for a statutory basis for sex and relationship education (SRE) in schools. In order to build a constructive relationship with the decision maker - in this case, government - the campaigners decided to focus on establishing strong evidence of the need for change. They rallied young people from across the country to engage in the research, and over 22,000 responses were received. "This evidence base gave the campaign significant status and respect and led to a series of meetings with government ministers and civil servants. Campaigners worked constructively alongside government to demonstrate why SRE needed to be improved."

As described here, broader ethical questions can arise when practitioners are supporting children and young people to campaign for change targeting the practitioner's employer, for instance. Key strategies detailed here include:

• Start from the children and young people's agenda: "While it may be appropriate to start a conversation with children and young people about social or political issues you are concerned about, the decision to debate further and/or campaign should be made by the children and young people you are working with - not you."
• Be a pro-campaigning organisation: "Discussing controversial issues in a balanced manner gives children and young people the opportunity to gain important skills and to develop their own opinions, and prepares them for being challenged about these issues in the wider community and in later life."
• Challenge children and young people: "Part of the role of practitioners is to challenge children and young people to rethink their statements, assumptions and ideas. Challenging their view exposes them to alternative viewpoints. This may include you explicitly playing 'devil's advocate' and showing alternative points of views....Make it clear to children and young people that you are taking on this role to help encourage debate."
• Avoid bias: "It would be unwise to run a campaign that actively supports one political party, candidate or politician as this risks you and your organisation being perceived as politically aligned. Children and young people are free to do this in their own time without your support."
• Do not support discrimination and hatred: "There is no duty to support children and young people's free expression where they are being manifestly discriminatory, inciting hatred or acting in a manner contrary to a healthy democracy. They have the freedom to do this, within the law, without your support."
• Stand up for human rights values: "Practitioners have a key role in explaining to children and young people their human rights as set out in the UN [United Nations] Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Act....It is valuable to offer a safe space for children and young people to discuss human rights and how the rights of different groups should be balanced. This can also be an opportunity to state clearly the limits of the debate that you, as an organisation, are willing to participate in."
• Be honest with children and young people: "If you have limits on what you can, or are willing to, support children and young people to campaign on, tell them as early as possible."

The reader next learns about the process of supporting campaigns led by children and young people. Steps detailed here include:

1. Identify the real problem: Research will often be a strategy for helping children identify why an injustice is occurring. "For example, news about a youth centre closing could be rumour or misrepresentation in the local press. Work with children and young people to research online, go as a group to visit the local library or look through newspaper archives."
2. Plan the campaign: 3 key questions need to be answered, according to Participation Works; text boxes within the guide offer suggested tools and activities that practitioners can use to raise the awareness and build the capacity of young campaigners to address: i) What needs to change? ii) Who can make that change? iii) How do you know when you have made a difference?
3. Take action: "In this section we give an overview of some of the methods you can use to create change, and, of course, the more people who get involved the better." For each of the following tactics, what is involved, legal restriction, pros and cons are outlined: petitions, letters, councillor call for action, and demonstrations and marches. Amongst the suggestions outlined in text boxes: use social networking sites and get press coverage.
4. Reflect and evaluate: "It is important to reflect regularly on how the campaign is progressing, the effectiveness of your tactics and how much closer you are to persuading your target."

The final 2 pages of the guide feature lists of resources and websites designed to help the reader find more detailed information and follow up on areas of interest for adults supporting children and young people to campaign.

Note: This publication is now only available for a fee (£1). Click here to order it.