Goal
Identification
Goal Identification is
central to the development of a truly participatory
and empowering project. In order for this phase to succeed,
facilitators should make sure that not only the goal
of the project to be implemented is meaningful to the
young activists, but also that the very process of selecting
the goal is carried in a participatory way. All too
often young people are invited to join interesting and
sometimes important activities that do not necessarily
open space for them to express their thoughts or come
up with something by themselves.
In some cases, the group may already know what it would
like to do. In others, you will have to create a space
in which young activists feel comfortable voicing their
ideas and listening to their peers. As presented in
the activities bellow, there are many ways of doing
that. In our opinion, activities like community mapping
and neighborhood tours are great to energize a new group,
but tend to highlight the more physical aspects of the
neighborhood. Alternatively, a good discussion about
the United Nations’ Rights of the Child may place
the participants in a position of power right from the
beginning and help them think about aspects of their
lives that would be hard to explore otherwise. Moreover,
the Child’s Rights implementation is a common
theme that may connect YAN members from all over the
world.
Independent on the activity chosen, the key is to always
be attentive to the group. Once a list of relevant community
aspects is identified, it is important for the group
to choose a couple of them to explore further in the
analysis phase of the project lifecycle. The selection
can be done by individual voting or by achieving consensus
on the sequence in which multiple projects could be
implemented.
Example Goal Identification
Activities:
