Spanning eight European countries, the Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme (YEPP) aims to enable young people in disadvantaged communities by involving them in new decision-making processes that span the public, private, and independent sectors. Youth Community and Empowerment in Europe explains the theory behind this unique collaborative program funded by a consortium of European and American foundations. Tracing the program's development and outcomes across its ten years of existence, the authors extract lessons that can improve future policy and evaluation strategies.

Youth development is as a core aspect of human and national progress in Nigeria. The study suggests the development of young people as the means of poverty reduction. It indicates that amidst cultural, ethnic, and religious diversities, and in the light of threats to human life and property, the development of the youth is the way to promoting peace and unity, justice, and security. The book argues on a two-fold contribution: While the Nigerian Church is to intensify efforts in the active participation of lay Christians in politics, the State is to tackle critical areas to ensure a decent standard of living for all.

This book analyses the opportunities and barriers for youth entrepreneurship amid systemic change in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors cover different aspects of youth entrepreneurship and its contribution to the debate on youth unemployment in transition economies. The book discusses the wide-spread over-optimism regarding youth entrepreneurship, self-employment, and its impact on economic innovation and job creation, resulting from a disregard of critical contextual features and the characteristics of young entrepreneurs themselves. The authors give due acknowledgment of the importance of both factors and so fully understand the impediments to youth entrepreneurship, especially in a transition context. Furthermore, they seek to assess the opportunities and constraints of promotion policies in transition economies. Most importantly, the book provides the first empirical contribution to youth entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe by offering a representative number of case studies. The book will be invaluable reading for scholars and students of transition and developing countries, particularly those with an interest in entrepreneurship.

This book applies a number of different disciplinary and geographical perspectives to ascertain whether and how European youth identify with the EU, trust EU institutions and engage in EU issues. It investigates the factors and processes that predict the different ways in which young Europeans engage (or do not engage) with social and political issues and become active European citizens. The volume is based on results from the first two years of the Horizon 2020 CATCH-EyoU project (“Constructing AcTive CitizensHip with European Youth: Policies, Practices, Challenges and Solutions”). It addresses different dimensions of active citizenship in the EU and different processes and contexts that explain the construction of youth active citizenship, including societal-level factors such as policy context and media; interaction-level contexts such as school and family; and individual-level factors. The final chapter emphasizes the impact of the current historical context on the development of young Europeans’ civic identity and their understanding of the social and political reality. With contributions from a variety of disciplines including psychology, political science, communications and education, and spanning geographic contexts across Europe, this book will be of interest to researchers studying contemporary European youth and the construction of young people’s identity. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology. Chapters 1 and 5 are available Open Access at https://www.routledge.com/products/9780367236557.

Drawing on the legacy of Paulo Freire and the insights of Antonio Gramsci, this book provides new ways of working with communities which put people at the heart of the development agenda. In addition, it offers a strong theoretical basis for action and an insight into the practical application of popular education methods and is based upon strong traditions of practice experience from both the developing and developed worlds. The book is structured so that the theory and practice are integrated. Each chapter provides key discussion points, practice examples, learning activities and a summary of content and learning points.

This study uses an ecological framework to consider negative behaviors and outcomes observed among Caribbean youth, and also to identify ways to enhance positive influences. Casting aside the often narrow view taken of "youth" as a marginal issue, this report advocates the prioritization of youth development across all sectors, and identifies key principles and actions for moving forward.

This publication contains a collection of papers drawn from a seminar under the Partnership Programme on Youth Research, held in Budapest in July 2004. The papers explore a range of issues relating to the participation of young people in voluntary work throughout Europe, including the barriers to participation, evaluation and research aspects, whether social inclusion objectives are achieved through volunteering, and policy directions for the future.

Young people are often at the forefront of democratic activism, whether self-organised or supported by youth workers and community development professionals. Focusing on youth activism for greater equality, liberty and mutual care – radical democracy – this timely collection explores the movement’s impacts on community organisations and workers. Essays from the Global North and Global South cover the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental activism and the struggles of refugees. At a time of huge global challenges, youth participation is a dynamic lens through which all community development scholars and participants can rethink their approaches.

Despite an EU-wide commitment to rural development, research has rarely focused on the lives of young people in rural areas, their experiences in education and employment, their perceptions of policies relevant to them, and their possibilities of participation. Based on a two-year European research project on policies and young people in rural development, this edited volume examines these issues and considers young people's experiences of rural life in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Scotland. The volume is organized thematically with each chapter addressing a specific topic in one or more countries. These topics comprise: the attractiveness of rural areas to young people; the impact of programmes under the European Employment Guidelines; rural youth in local community development and partnerships; rural development programmes and their impact on youth integration; the role of social networks; and the transition from education to employment. A number of implications for policy and practice are drawn out in conclusion. This book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of rural areas and with those who live in the European countryside.