Five Good Ideas on working with youth to bridge the democratic deficit

Sharif Mahdy and Kwaku Agyemang, from the Students Commission of Canada, joined Five Good Ideas to share how organizations can engage youth to participate in systems change.

“The deficit that we’re trying to address is this,” explained Sharif. “First, young people don’t get engaged and involved on these issues. Second, the process for engaging in our democracy is eroding. And the process for being able to engage in healthy discourse is being challenged for all sorts of reasons.

What we’re offering here through these five good ideas is an approach that we’ve tried over time that could be scaled and could help address some of the deficits we’re currently experiencing.”

Sharif and Kwaku’s five good ideas: 

1. Youth engagement is both a process and an outcome
2. Respect, listen, understand, and communicate
3. Mutuality is a key to navigating increasing complexity of intergenerational partnerships 
4. Work with youth to bridge the democratic deficit
5. Youth are catalysts for systems change

For Sharif and Kwaku's full bios and resources, visit the session page.