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Findings of the Youth Citizenship Commission

The Youth Citizenship Commission recently completed a large piece of research which looked at young people’s relationships with Citizenship and formal politics. The research was carried out with young people aged 13-25 and with adults who have an influence on the lives of young people, e.g. parents, teachers and youth workers. The study showed that there needs to be a change in how the subject of Citizenship is handled if young people (and adults for that matter) are to be more engaged in the world around them.

There are loads of challenges facing Citizenship. A lot of people are confused about what Citizenship means, with many thinking that it just refers to national identity or Britishness. The fact that a Citizenship test is needed to gain a British passport has added to this sense of confusion and the idea that citizenship must just be for people born outside the UK.

Another problem is that a lot of Citizenship teachers are not specialists and so often don’t feel confident in teaching the subject. This can lead to students being confused about what citizenship really means and how it affects them.

Often for people who have grown up in neighbourhoods where there is a lack of community spirit and problems like anti-social behaviour, the idea of engaging with their community just sounds unrealistic and unappealing. Most people need some involvement with the other people in their community before they will become actively involved. How can we kick start this process?

So as these are the biggest problems the Youth Citizenship Commission have found with citizenship so these are what we will be discussing in the forum:

Your community – how do you want to be involved in your area? How could your local area be improved for young people? How can the adults in your community involve you?

Generational trust – do you feel that older people look down on young people? Do you think it’s important to hear from older people and for them to hear from you? Would you like to volunteer with older people? Do you think they would trust you more if you did?

Citizenship education – do you think you get citizenship education at your school? Are you taught what you need to know about politics? How could your teachers encourage citizenship at your school? Have you done any good projects in Citizenship classes? Are citizenship lessons active enough?