Participation through leadership: It Is Time to Invest in Youth Leadership

Young people should not only have a seat at the table. They should have opportunities to lead.

We often talk about young people as people we need to help.

We develop projects for them, employment programmes for them and activities designed to increase their inclusion.

These efforts are important. But what happens when we change the question from:

"What support do young people need?"

to:

"What responsibilities, opportunities and leadership can we trust young people with?"

At ROW Borås, we believe that social inclusion should ultimately lead somewhere beyond participation. It should create pathways to leadership.

Borås has a reason to think differently

Borås had 114,872 residents at the end of 2024. Like many European cities, Borås faces the challenge of keeping young people connected to education, employment and community life. [boras.se]

Our earlier review of youth employability in Borås reported that approximately 6.5% of 16 to 24-year-olds were outside both work and studies in 2024. This matters because being disconnected from education and employment is not simply an economic problem. It can also weaken networks, confidence and opportunities to participate in society. [rowboras.se]

The challenge is not unique to Borås. Across Sweden, 6.2% of 16 to 24-year-olds were neither working nor studying in 2024, according to the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society, MUCF. The statistics are based on population registers rather than a small survey sample. [mucf.se]

But there are useful comparisons.

Lund, with 131,590 residents in 2024, is reasonably close to Borås in municipal population size. Recent municipality-level data report approximately 3.1% of Lund's 16 to 24-year-olds outside work or studies, substantially below the figure reported for Borås. [lund.se] [skolkoll.se]

Jönköping, another medium-sized Swedish municipality, reports about 5.2% of its 16 to 24-year-olds outside work or studies, with a population of approximately 148,000. [skolkoll.se]

These figures should not be interpreted as a league table. Cities differ in universities, demographics, labour markets and socioeconomic conditions. Nor can a lower rate automatically be attributed to a particular youth programme. But the comparison raises a useful question:

What could Borås learn from places where fewer young people appear to become disconnected?

Perhaps one part of the answer is to look beyond programmes that prepare young people merely to participate.

From participants to leaders

Youth inclusion often follows a familiar model:

Young people have needs → adults design an intervention → young people participate.

What if we added another step?

Young people participate → develop skills → receive responsibility → lead something themselves.

A young person attending an activity today might become its peer mentor tomorrow.

A young person receiving career coaching might later help another young person prepare for their first interview.

A participant in a community project might eventually help design the next project.

Someone who feels that they do not have a voice might eventually represent the perspectives of other young people in conversations with civil society, employers or local authorities.

That is youth leadership.

It does not require giving young people responsibilities for which they are unprepared. Leadership can begin with something small: organising an activity, presenting an idea, welcoming new participants, leading part of a workshop or developing a community initiative.

Responsibility grows through opportunities to practise responsibility.

Confidence grows through experiences of being trusted.

Young people need more than employability

Employment is enormously important, but preparing someone to obtain a job and preparing someone to become an active contributor to society are not exactly the same thing.

A young leader needs opportunities to develop:

• confidence and communication;
• initiative and problem-solving;
• teamwork;
• project planning;
• social and professional networks;
• decision-making;
• entrepreneurship; and
• the ability to support and mobilise others.

These are also capabilities that employers increasingly value.

For young people who lack established professional networks, mentorship becomes particularly important. A mentor can provide knowledge and encouragement, but also something less visible: access to social capital.

One relationship can create another connection. One connection can create an opportunity. And one opportunity can change how a young person sees their own future.

What could this mean for Borås?

Borås already has structures from which something stronger can grow.

Through ViA, Vägen till en inkluderande arbetsmarknad, Borås Stad explicitly encourages municipalities, companies and civil society to work together to create routes towards work, education and participation. [boras.se]

The wider Sjuhärad region also has Youngspace, an initiative involving municipalities, civil society, business and other stakeholders that aims to strengthen young people's social, cultural and political participation. The project runs within a European collaboration involving organisations in six countries. [scienceparkboras.se], [hb.se]

This provides an opportunity.

What if employment, mentoring and inclusion initiatives in Borås increasingly contained a leadership pathway?

For example:

Participant → Volunteer → Peer Mentor → Youth Leader → Project Initiator

Young people could gradually move from receiving opportunities to creating opportunities for others.

From "Believe in Me" to "Trust Me to Lead"

At ROW Borås, our Believe in Me, I can! initiative already works with career guidance, practical life skills, personal development and connections with local stakeholders. [rowboras.se]

Perhaps the next stage is therefore not simply:

Believe in me. I can.

Perhaps it is:

Believe in me. Trust me. Let me lead.

Youth leadership should not be reserved for the young people who already speak confidently, achieve the best grades or have the strongest networks.

Those who have experienced exclusion may possess insights that institutions themselves do not have.

The person who has struggled to enter the labour market may understand barriers that an employment programme has overlooked.

The young person navigating different cultures may understand belonging in ways that cannot be learned from a policy document.

And the participant who once needed a mentor may eventually become exactly the mentor another young person needs.

A place at the table is only the beginning

The question for Borås should therefore not only be:

How do we include more young people?

It should also be:

How do we identify, develop and trust the leaders already among them?

If we genuinely want young people to take responsibility for their future, then our organisations must be prepared to give them opportunities to practise responsibility today.

A seat at the table is important.

But sometimes we should also let young people lead the conversation.

For ROW Borås, that could be where participation becomes empowerment, and where empowerment becomes leadership.

Suggested teaser for Let's ROW

What if youth inclusion did not end with participation?
Borås needs young people not simply as recipients of support, but as mentors, organisers, innovators and community leaders. The next step may be to move from"Believe in me" to"Trust me to lead."