This module is the result of a process of information-gathering and evidenced-based analysis informed by COPA’s carefully developed empowerment-based analysis and approach.
We wish to acknowledge the complexity and difficulty of presenting youth voice and to establish that this module does not attempt to do so. We do not claim to speak for or represent "children and youth"; rather, the voices of young people, leaders and educators we listened to and work with inform the stuff of this resource.
We have listened carefully to the perspectives, ideas, hopes, visions of students, teachers, educators and community leaders interviewed during the filming of our stories and testimonials, and to those consulted in our dedicated series of individual and group discussion and dialogue sessions, organized for the purpose of creating this module.
Our Youth Empowerment module thus presents a distillation of this data fused with key elements of COPA’s unique concepts, guidelines and strategies aimed at supporting character development through youth empowerment in classrooms and schools. Practical strategies, tools, phrases and examples adapted from these dialogue and discussion sessions are woven through the fabric of the module.
This module is intended for all of us who are interested in learning and fostering youth empowerment, and its attendant opportunities for reflection, growth, learning and change—what COPA calls the cycle of change. The module offers a path to deepening and broadening our efforts to put student voices front and centre, recognizing its intrinsic value for us all, now and in the future.