Child and Youth Participation in Policy, Practice and Research

This book showcases rights based participatory approaches to policy-making, practice and research with children and youth. Throughout its three parts, the book conceptualises a rights-based participatory approach; showcases constructive and innovative rights based participatory approaches across the domains of research, policy and practice; and interrogates the challenges and complexities in the implementation of such an approach. In recent times, Ireland has been at the forefront of promoting and implementing participatory approaches to policy-making, practice and research focused on children and youth. This edited volume is a timely opportunity to capture previously undocumented learning generated from a wide range of innovative participatory initiatives implemented in Ireland. In capturing this learning, real world guidance will be provided to international policy-makers, practitioners and researchers working with children and youth. This book is essential reading for those interested in a rights based participatory approach, for those who want to appropriately and meaningfully engage children and youth in research, and for those wishing to maximise the contribution of children and youth in policy-making.

Deirdre Horgan is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, and Deputy Director of the BA (Early Years and Childhood Studies) at University College Cork, Ireland. Her research interests include childhood, child welfare and protection, children's rights and participation, children's research methods, and child migration. Deirdre has published widely on these topics. She has conducted a number of funded research projects using child participatory methods as well as reporting on government consultations with children on a range of policy issues. She is currently co-investigator on IMMERSE - an Horizon 2020 project on socio-educational integration of children with migrant backgrounds. Danielle Kennan is a Lecturer in Applied Social Science in the School of Political Science and Sociology at National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) and a Senior Researcher with the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway, Ireland. Danielle has an inter-disciplinary expertise in human rights law and child and youth studies. She has a particular research interest in child and youth participation rights and participatory research methodologies. She has published widely in this field.

Introduction, Part 1: Child and Youth Participation in Policy, 1. Partnering for child participation: reflections from a policy maker and a professor, 2. Informing Policy Dialogue: The Youth as Researchers Programme, 3. 'The Children's Soap Box': Evaluating active citizenship through creative engagement, 4. 'Are they going to do anything with this info?': Implementing Children's Perspectives on play and recreation policies, 5. Visible, valued and included: Prioritising youth participation in policy-making for the Irish LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy, Part 2: Child and Youth Participation in Practice, 6. Amplifying Seldom Heard Voices, 7. Children and adolescents' participation in information-sharing and healthcare decision-making, 8. Young Peoples Experiences of Youth Participation in a Mental Health Organisation, 9. A Multi-faceted Approach to Embedding Rights Based Participatory Practice in Child Protection, Welfare and Family Support Services, 10. Art Makes You: Co-production with young people at the National Gallery of Ireland, Part 3: Child and Youth Participation in Research, 11. Locating the (adult) researcher in participatory research with children, 12. Children's Research Advisory Groups: moving from adult-research agendas to co-creation with children, 13. Addressing race in participatory research with children and young people: Art-based methods, silence and 'voice', 14. Reflections from Young Research Collaborators: From Consultative Research to Child-led Dissemination, 15. The process and impact of involving children in the HBSC Ireland study, Conclusion.