This text aims to help professionals empower children so that they can contribute to the decisions which affect them as individuals and as a group; at unit, local and national levels. The manual helps to ensure success by providing a training tool for both professionals and young people. The manual examines: the importance of empowerment to children and young people; the benefits of empowerment to children and professionals alike; the barriers to empowerment; and the need for workers and organizations to understand their own intentions before embarking on moves towards promoting children and young people's involvement in decision-making. Part 1 describes participation to professionals, and includes exercises which help professionals work through the issues relating to empowering young people in their working context. Part 2 focuses on training young people to be active in decision-making by building their confidence, with exercises that offer practical ideas to work with children. Part 3 looks at long-term empowerment, and strategies for making it work are examined through examples of good practice.
All the material is photocpiable and, in particular, the checklists and exercises have been designed to be photocopied as handouts.