Youth-Driven Accountability

"Keeping the promises you make" + "Speaking up if someone does something wrong" + "It’s a choice of action not just words" + "It is also about preventing bad things from happening" + "Creating action and space to back young people to lead" +

"Keeping the promises you make" + "Speaking up if someone does something wrong" + "It’s a choice of action not just words" + "It is also about preventing bad things from happening" + "Creating action and space to back young people to lead" +

So… what is accountability?

Accountability to young people is about changing the way young people and adults connect and work together.

It is young people saying ‘what good looks like’ in their lives and communities.

It is adults recognising and supporting young people’s power, openly working towards shared ideas, and partnering to create change.

Accountability to young people is about moving beyond just listening to young people’s voices. It’s about communities, services, governments and systems becoming accountable to young people for the role they play in their lives.

This could look like:

  • Young people + adults working together as true partners

  • Taking action on the ideas young people share

  • Moving from ‘advisory groups’ to processes of truth-telling

  • Adults reporting back to young people on how they are tracking on the promises they have made

  • Recognising young people’s power and expertise beyond the limitations of voice, participation or co-design processes

  • Making new commitments based on what young people ask for

  • Making up for past harm

“We all struggle and go through our own versions of pain, but adults aren’t listening to us. The older generation always say that they had it harder, but they fought for that change so we didn’t have to go through it. But we are fighting different fights. It’s us that need to fight for our future, backed by everyone else. 

If more adults and systems were accountable to young people, it would make a difference in the lives of young people. Young people are the ones that know what we need. Adults aren’t in our shoes. When they listen to us and then take action, that’s when the best outcomes are going to come.” - Seb (15) and Tia (18)

Resources

Working Out Loud

Youth-driven accountability is a powerful idea with potential for profound and transformational impact on existing systems and structures.

This movement draws on ancient, existing and new wisdom and knowledge. Youth-driven accountability is an opportunity to reimagine the ways systems engage with, support, listen and respond to young people.

To enable this movement, we commit to learning and working out loud. This means that the content we share will be:

  • Version based: we will share our latest thinking in ‘versions’ that are never finished and guaranteed to shift over time.

  • Emergent: we will do our best to work with complexity, stay open to surprise and to support collective knowledge to develop.

  • Open source: we want people to engage and use our content! We encourage honest adaptation, in ways that are useful, new and ambitious and that raise the standards of ways of working between young people and adults. 

  • Invitational: We invite critique, questioning and open dialogue on all we share, offer and put out into the world.

    Reach out to us, we wanna talk!

  • What Young People are Calling For

    What the world will look like when it is more accountable to young people.

    Learn more

  • Intergenerational + Accountable Governance

    What should we know about the services you provide? Better descriptions result in more sales.

    Make It

  • From Advisory to Accountability

    Stretching existing youth engagement practice: Voice, Participation, Co-Design.

    Make It

  • Partnership Principles

    The ways that young people can hold decision makers accountable.

    Make It