Ceding Power to Youth: The Birth of Siena Youth Council – How to Involve Children and Youth in Your Work
Section
The peer-learning journey “How to Involve Children and Youth in Your Work” is a series of online webinars organised by Philea’s Children and Youth Network throughout 2024 and 2025 that aim to advance youth inclusion in the work of foundations by providing concrete pathways and tools to implement. Following each module, foundations that are willing to transform their way of working with young people can benefit from input from organisations with specific expertise on a given topic.
The sixth module explored “How to Cede Power to Youth: The Birth of Siena Youth Council” on 8 May 2025 with Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Read on to discover the key points and recommendations from presenters and those involved in the project
Aims and content
This online module explored the challenges and opportunities of youth engagement, focusing on the process of establishing a structured platform for young voices in decision-making. It delved into the key issues that drive the need for youth councils, such as civic participation, representation, and intergenerational dialogue.
Through practical examples and insights from those involved in the initiative, the session examined effective strategies for fostering youth involvement, overcoming barriers to participation, and creating sustainable mechanisms that empower younger generations. Drawing from the experience of Siena’s Youth Council, the module provided a roadmap for communities looking to amplify youth voices and integrate them into meaningful decision-making processes.
Learning topics covered
- Raising awareness about the need for youth involvement and its benefits, both for the foundation and for the vitality of the community itself;
- Demonstrating the differences between activities done for the benefit of young people and activities done with young people;
- Gaining a new form of legitimacy for a philanthropic institution in promoting the ceding of power and abandoning paternalistic approach for the empowerment of younger generations
- Focusing on the potential of a Youth Council and raising awareness of possible difficulties in its implementation.
The project
The Youth Council of Siena, launched in 2023 by Fondazione MPS, and developed together with the social enterprise Generation T, the universities of Siena and the municipality of Siena, is a platform for young people aged 20-35 to engage with institutions and contribute ideas for the city’s development. Initially focused on university students, it has since expanded to include all young individuals in the area, promoting dialogue and collaborative projects to benefit the community.
| Title | Youth Council of Siena (il Consiglio dei Giovani di Siena) |
| Country | Italy |
| Year | 2023-2025 |
| Mode of participation | Consultation-Collaboration |
| Age of young people involved | 20-35 |
Point in philanthropic cycle
Youth Council of Siena involved young people at the following points in the philanthropic cycle:
- Defining issues and priorities to be targeted by programmes
- Investigating the views of children/youth on the issues (research)
- Designing programmes (activities, grants)
- Grants attribution
- Taking action (implementation)
- Board: joining a governance structure (advisory group or board)
Recommendations based on this experience:
The presenters offered the following recommendations:
- Start with recognition: Acknowledge that young people need power now, they are not just the leaders of tomorrow, but active agents of change today.
- For the philanthropic institutions involved: Listen to young people with humility and open mind, avoiding tokenistic and paternalistic approaches.
- For the organisations and individuals involved in the council: Take time at the outset to examine and align on the purpose, expectations, and structure of the Council. Drawing from the experience of the Youth Council of Siena, participants noted that some foundational conversations, particularly around assumptions about the Council’s role and value, would have been beneficial early on to ensure shared understanding.
- Understand your context: Before launching a similar initiative, it is essential to deeply understand the local and national context, especially how young people are perceived and engaged in everyday civic life. This context shapes how young people see themselves and how they will interact with stakeholders throughout the project.
- Broaden your reach from the beginning: The Youth Council of Siena’s experience highlights the value of including a diverse range of voices from the outset. Needs and perspectives will vary significantly depending on participants’ backgrounds, and this diversity enriches the Council’s work.
- Balance autonomy and collaboration: It’s important to strike a balance between empowering the Youth Council to act independently and ensuring regular, constructive engagement with the foundation’s governing bodies. Creating intentional spaces for exchange and reflection between these groups fosters mutual understanding and alignment.
Excerpt from Module 6 Q&A
What is more complex, starting or maintaining youth real engagement? And has it been recognised that this initiative is putting democracy into real work?
The maintenance phase might be the harder one. Indeed, when we started, we had a real momentum: The initial groups we involved at the beginning, when we were working with university associations, came also with a little bit of “peer pressure” dynamic. Everyone wanted to be heard at the beginning, so the desire to participate was strong and we had a good number of applications. The tricky part will probably be the maintenance, principally because you need to address questions such as what exactly are you maintaining? What kind of commitment are you going to continue? Who is the council and where is the council going? What will the composition be? What’s going to happen when you start to be able to take decisions about the functioning of a city and you have other stakeholders feeling that this is their space? I think the maintenance is going to be really exciting for all of those reasons and at the same time much more complicated than the initial boost.
Regarding the second question: I think it’s something we realised quite recently internally. For example, my experience as one of the few council members that are working and so are not part of the university or not part of the contrada, we wouldn’t have had another place to express concerns or needs or being able to act on it. Also, in a council like this there is a very democratic principle of having to engage with groups that have different priorities. We’re similar in age but there is a really good balance of members in terms of our backgrounds, our experiences, where we come from and where we want to go. It is a really interesting initiative to be involved in because it gets us out of our own “micro groups” as well.
Quotes
“I think one challenge has been keeping a balance between the desired outcomes of the council in terms of the projects that have been funded and the more relational and power shifting aspects of the council”
Matias Nestore, Siena Youth Council member
“It is our responsibility as a philanthropic institution to create all the conditions and prerequisites and share whatever we can in order to empower young people to raise awareness about their own priorities and also trying to shape the policies that are in line with their expectations”
Daniele Messina, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena