Estonian experience of implementing the new forms of youth participation in youth policy

The main objectives of the paper are to explore opinions of stakeholders about how young people are involved in the decision-making process of youth policy; to investigate whether youth have opportunities to participate in youth policy at various levels and whether youth opinions are taken into consideration in the implementation of policies affecting their lives. The study involves a mixture of desk research (analysis of documents, previous reviews of youth policy, youth research and statistics), semi-structured interviews and focus group with experts in the youth field. The study reveals that during the last decade several new options were implemented for better inclusion of Estonian youth in the decision-making process. The study presents the Estonian experience of several forms of youth participation such as youth participation councils, youth participation through youth umbrella organizations, youth work and youth research. The study identifies the main challenges for involving young people in decision-making in youth policy.