Service-learning: a way to encourage young people’s participation

Abstract

This article reports on an intervention project carried out with secondary school students with whom we worked to promote participatory processes. The project sought to give these students a voice and facilitate the collective construction of knowledge of their reality, involving them in identifying, ordering and prioritizing the problems and obstacles that affect them and prevent their development, so that they can later propose and implement alternative solutions in their community, thus promoting citizenship and resulting in democratic, autonomous and solidary processes. The project used the service-learning methodology, which provided the young people with tools that allowed them to rethink themselves as legal subjects. The project results show the importance of participation in the construction of youth citizenship.