Over the past two years, Healthy Start has conducted design-oriented research into improving youth participation in policy making at the municipality of Rotterdam. In a wrap-up, we share the results of two years of collaboration with youngsters, youth workers and policy makers.

We summarize the most important insights of the project and give an overview of what can be found where. The following things among others can be found:

• Our first step was to gain insights into the knowledge and experience that already exists through 12 best practice interviews. We concluded that there is no single best approach to shaping youth participation. However, there are five fixed points of interest and two principles that help to come to a good approach.
• From interviews with 35 youngsters from Rotterdam it shows that a large part of the youth currently does not feel heard by the municipality. It is unclear to them how they can participate, think and decide on plans that affect their lives.
• According to Rotterdam policy makers, opportunities for youth participation in policy making are limited. Many policies that affect youngsters are still being developed without involving them. Through interviews with 70 Rotterdam officials, we better understand why. We provide insights and opportunities into the individual and contextual barriers they experience and how to improve this.
• During the design phase, we focus on creating more space for youth participation in municipal policy. Through co-creation we work with Rotterdam policy makers on an approach that focuses on learning by doing, more control and making visible what is already happening. The design approach focuses on increasing the possibilities for meaningful youth participation in policy.

This project was a collaboration between researchers from different disciplines (Public Administration Science, Psychology, Health Sciences and Industrial Design) and practitioner partners. All lessons learned while doing the design-based research, have been summarized in our four building blocks for transdisciplinary research. We will also share these in the wrap-up.

If you have any questions or ides, please contact Irene Fierloos: fierloos@essb.eur.nl.