| dc.description.abstract | The terms participation is a term modified with adjectives, resulting in terms such as
community participation, citizen participation, people’s participation, public
participation, and popular participation. It means a community having a share in” or
“to take part in,” thereby emphasizing the rights of individuals and the choices that
they make in order to participate. Participatory development is the most important
approach towards enabling communities to help themselves and sustain efforts in
development work. Despite the government’s effort to empower the youth through
their participation in community based projects, youth have not fully participated in
such projects. The purpose of the study was to assess the factors influencing youth
participation in community based youth projects in Nyeri County. Four research
objectives guided the study. Research objective one sought to establish the influence
of level of education among the youth on their participation in community based
youth projects , research objective two sought to assess how individual factors
influenced youth participation in community based youth projects , research objective
three sought to explore how youth involvement in the monitoring of the projects
influenced their participation in community based youth projects while research
objective four sought to determine how involvement in decision making influenced
youth participation in community based youth projects in Nyeri County. The study
adopted a descriptive survey design. The sample comprised of 80 officials and 274
youth members. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and was analyzed by use
of qualitative and quantitative technique. Findings revealed that youth who had
attained different levels of education participated differently in the youth projects as
indicated by majority 49(65.3%) of youth officials which implied that the level of
education had an influence on youth participation in community based. Majority
140(52.2%) of youth members strongly agreed that education encourages the youth to
participate in community based youth projects. Based on the findings, it was
concluded that education had an influence on youth participation in community based
projects. On the influence of individual factors on the youth participation in
community based youth projects, the study concluded that individual factors
influenced youth participation in the implementation of community based youth
projects and youths were not aware of the participation of community based youth
project. The study lastly concluded that youth involvement in decision making
process results in better quality decisions of the projects as youth provided technical
experts during the projects decision making process. Based on the findings, the study
recommended that the government should develop strategies to curb the challenges
faced by youths in trying to be part and parcel of the community based projects and
also have their voices heard..The study suggested that a study on other factors
influencing youth participation in community based projects.. Influence of
government policy on youth engagement in community based projects and effects of
youth empowerment programmes on youth participation in community based projects
to be conducted for further studies | en_US |
