Youth Policies

The challenge of full citizenship is - or should be - currently one of the central elements in social discourses and, among them, in discourses related to youth policies. 

The objective is just to overcome the theoretical and discursive debate and to enter into the analysis of the experienced practice of the citizenship, the one that qualifies justly for the practical exercise of the recognized rights and that has no other way of achieving it than through the practical and applied of this right. 

The purpose of youth policies must be to guarantee the possibility and the quality of all the processes that allow to speak of the exercise of full citizenship. That is why it should favor youth emancipation understood as access to decent housing and work, but also have received a quality education, have access to culture and not be subject to any type of social exclusion. 

The evaluation of all youth policies must incorporate elements to consider the effectiveness of the actions taken from an integrity perspective to favor the possibilities of youth emancipation and, with it, full citizenship. 

The SIAPJove arises with the conviction that municipal youth policies should occupy a central space in social policies, while they can also become a means for social transformation by facilitating the life project of the youth. of young people, promote social mobility, fight against inequalities and promote the role of youth as a driver of change. This centrality justifies, today, the need for policies and specific youth units. Young people require, in many cases, a specific attention because of very different and changing factors, linked to the youthful condition itself. Units are needed to guarantee and ensure the correct deployment of public policies and to lead the evaluation and reformulation processes. 

It is in this sense that this proposal for a system of evaluation indicators is framed. 

You can find more information in:

Planas, A., Soler, P., Vilà, M. (2014) Assessing youth policies. A system of indicators for local government. Evaluation and Program Planning,  Volume 45, Pages 22-28

Soler-Masó, P., Planas-Lladó, A. & Fullana-Noell, J. (2015). La evaluación de las políticas municipales de juventud a partir de un sistema de indicadores. Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud, 13 (2), pp. 1107-1123.