What Works: Adolescent Participation in Latin American and the Caribbean

This handbook addresses the link between participation and citizenship and serves as a guide to some of the most promising practices in the field to assist practitioners in developing programs to engage adolescents through participation. Through participation, adolescents develop creativity, communication skills and social awareness. They become key players, and this provides an opportunity for families, communities, schools, policymakers, politicians and society in general to take advantage of these qualities and include adolescents in decision-making processes. The ultimate goal of this report is to show that, regardless of the form, adolescent participation can enhance the capacity of adolescents to contribute to their own development and the development of their communities, placing them as strategic actors in promoting their rights and contributing to society. Thus, adolescent participation strengthens democracy and contributes to meaningful changes in society. (authors)