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YUP survey story #2: How do young people participate in the city?

By Rawiyah Salma

How do young people take action on what matters to them? What factors encourage them? What challenges do they face? Continuing the survey story series, this section explores how young people in four cities take action on issues they care about in their communities.

Let’s meet Putri. Putri is a 17-year-old from Solo, currently studying and will soon continue her study at a university. Putri has been witnessing Solo’s rapid urbanisation and how it impacted the community. In her personal view, the most important issues are mental health and housing. Feeling a strong connection to her hometown, she’s motivated to actively participate. Putri’s participation is in diverse ways, such as joining groups, volunteering, voting, and sometimes she also contacts authorities. Moreover, she also takes advantage of digital media to post and engage with others. While she sometimes wonders how much of an impact a young person like herself can make, her desire for new experiences and her safe feeling to express herself drives her to stay active, and that she feels she has no barrier in doing her actions.

Putri is just one example of the diverse ways young people prioritise and address important issues in Solo and beyond. Let’s explore the perspectives and actions of thousands of young people across Solo, Denpasar, Bar Elias, and El Mina, as they participate in shaping their cities.

Which of these are most important for young people?

Like Putri, 17% of other respondents also prioritise mental health issues, in which females take a bigger proportion compared to male. It is said that young people have become more aware of mental health, which is also related with their internal well-being. A Lebanese respondent mentioned specifically about how the tall buildings and loud sounds in the city disturb her mental health.

Housing is an issue which is the concern of 15% of respondents. Housing is not only perceived as a technical issue, which is tied with those who study urban planning, but also the concern of the recent house conditions. Some respondents stated that they want to have a separate house from their extended family. The others concerned the high-density residential areas or even affected by floods, hence they want to move.

Beside these issues, young people in Solo, Denpasar, Bar Elias, and El Mina mainly see education, jobs – economic opportunities, health, and environment as the most important issues for themselves. These issues are perceived as highly correlated with individual reasons, such as the thirst of young people in getting an alternative education by joining online courses. While the environment issue includes broader aspects in life, such as waste, water, pollution.

 

How do young people take action on what matters to them?

Young people are busily taking actions on this issues that matter to them in different ways and forms. The majority of respondents do their activities as they are being part of groups, accounting for more than one-third of the whole proportion. They also actively engage through volunteering and attending training, or through their own initiative, in religious ways or through art expression. Additionally, 40% of these activities are led by young people themselves or by other youth, showing their high self-motivation and drive to take initiative in their communities.

The majority of activities were chosen more often by females than by males. However, activities more frequently chosen by males included participating in religious activities, mobilising others, contacting officials, campaigning and advocacy, and participating in protests. While in terms of age, the data showed that the older of the respondents, the more likely they were to be part of a group and attend training. The youngest group, age 10 – 12, donated the most to express their caring towards their concerned issue.

“I donate because I am grateful for the blessings I have” and “I care about people and want to see joy in their faces” were the thoughts from 10 and 11 year old respondents in El Mina who chose to donate or donated with their families.

What motivates and discourages young people to be active?

Regarding what the encouraging factors influence their participation in the city, a high number of respondents are motivated by their desire to get experiences and learn, accounting for two-third of the respondents. This could be motivated by external factors, such as current living situation, family support, or self principle. The other most frequent factor was the values and solidarity sharing with a group.

Young people also show that they are motivated because of their care towards the city, which shows their belief that young people can leave an impact on the city.

On the other hand, there are some barriers that hinder them from participating further or doing different actions. The majority of respondents show that they are too busy, either from work or school. While one out of five respondents feel that they don’t have information on how to do the activities they want, worry over perception of what other people might think about them.

The younger group (age 10 – 17) felt they are worried about others’ perceptions towards themselves more than the older group. The fear of bullying is one of the reasons stated by the respondents related to this matter.

These actions, what factors encourage them and what discourage them made their thoughts about how they could contribute to the city. More than half of them are confident that they can leave a great impact.

 
 

Which of these actors do young people think could work most and least effectively with them in their cities?

Beside the factors mentioned, external actors also play a role on how young people participate in the city, helping them in creating an enabling environment. Look at the graph below and click over each actor to see how young people perceive them.

The parties perceived as the most effective in working with young people include schools and universities, which are selected by more than half of the respondents, along with community initiatives and non-governmental organisations. In contrast, the government, both at the state and regional levels, is seen as the least effective in working with young people.

Stay tuned for the next post that will present the result of the final section of the YUP survey, which explores the digital usage of young people!

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