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Sixth Global Summit: Youth–Local Government Engagement

Publication Date:

22/01/2026

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Event Reports

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Sixth Global SummitTorontoYouth Engagementyouth-local government engagement

— 8 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during this session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit agenda included a plenary session on Youth-Local Government Engagement, which explored how cities can meaningfully engage youth not just as beneficiaries but as co-designers of prevention policies and programmes (e.g., through youth-led councils, participatory budgeting and safety audits and digital innovation).

The session was framed around three ‘puzzle pieces’: 1) COVID-19 and its impact on young people, (2) the digital environment which plays an outsized role in young people’s lives, (3) and the ever-present sustainability versus tokenism debate on local government-led and other engagement with youth. Each of these dimensions shapes the environment in which young people engage with the local government and represent both risk and resilience factors for violence, extremism and hate. 

Scene Setters

• Bojan Francuz, Doctoral Student, The New School for Social Research – Moderator
• Bryan Barnett, Mayor of Rochester Hills (Michigan, USA)
• Ismail (Mohamed) Rafeeq, Mayor of Fuvahmulah City (Maldives)
• Aziz Lebbar, Deputy Mayor, City of Fes (Morocco)
• Lori Luther, City Manager, City of Overland Park (Kansas, USA)
• Cateline Autixier, Urban Security Planning Advisor, Service de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion Sociale (SDIS), City of Montréal (Québec, Canada)
• Sharif Mahdy, Chief Executive Officer, The Students Commission of Canada

Key Takeaways

1. Local government engagement with young people must shift from one-off, ad hoc initiatives and projects to building a structured ecosystem for sustained engagement. This should include capacity-building and institutionalising youth participation in representative civic bodies. Compensating youth for their time and contribution to such bodies can boost participation and equity.
2. Intergenerational collaboration can drive real impact. Local governments can help spark this collaboration by providing young people more opportunities to share real decision-making authority and by acting as partners and changemakers rather than gatekeepers.
3. Local governments should find more opportunities to help anchor youth in positive networks: this includes through after-school sports, arts and cultural programmes. When doing so, local governments should pay particular attention to those from underserved communities.
4. Youth are on the frontlines of rapidly evolving digital harms. Shaped by AI and algorithms, young people navigate an environment where online and offline realities are inseparable. Harms unfold simultaneously across emotional, social and safety dimensions and are accelerated by digital technologies, while adults and institutions remain focused on outdated risks or tools. 
5. Trust, agency and belonging are the foundation of effective prevention. Prevention works best when youth are met with trust, consistency and belonging. Third spaces such as libraries, clubs, faith spaces and community organisations play a critical role, especially during after-school hours.
6. Cities should blend digital platforms with in-person spaces that foster connection, dialogue and community. Hybrid engagement is essential to engage meaningfully with youth, who value online spaces, but increasingly seek structured, phone-free, real-life environments to build trust and wellbeing. 

Key Themes 

1. COVID-19 and Its Impact on Youth Development

Speakers were invited to move beyond diagnosis and distill practical lessons for cities seeking to shift youth engagement from isolated, project-based initiatives into durable prevention systems embedded within local governance. Across diverse contexts, a clear consensus emerged: cities that have been able to position youth engagement as part of their prevention infrastructure have done so by, for example, rebuilding social connection in the post-COVID period, engaging digital spaces more intentionally and embedding youth voice into decision-making processes with real power, continuity and accountability.

Panellists underscored that COVID-19 profoundly disrupted youth socialisation, education-to-work transitions, mental health and civic participation. Prolonged isolation increased young people’s vulnerability to disengagement, polarisation, and in some contexts, radicalisation.

Speakers emphasised that municipalities must rethink youth engagement models to respond to these realities, shifting toward sustained, integrated systems that embed youth participation into everyday municipal functions, policymaking and service delivery.#

2. Turning Digital Spaces from Threats to Community-Building Tools

Panellists acknowledged widespread discomfort navigating social media, AI and digital culture. There was wide recognition that young people today form one-sided relationships online, organise and learn primarily in digital environments, and experience identity formation and political socialisation through screens. At the same time, city leaders heard youth themselves express fatigue with constant digital presence and a desire for more phone-free, face-to-face engagement. One of the panellists emphasised that young people today are not just digital natives, they are also loneliness natives.

Moreover, they discussed how digital engagement is neither optional nor a substitute for offline work. Digital spaces are unavoidable for young people, but they remain governable when approached with intentional proactive strategies rather than treated as inherently harmful or inherently safe. What ultimately matters is not the specific platform youth use, but whether those spaces are structured through clear norms, active moderation and the presence of trusted adults who can guide interaction and intervene when necessary. At its best, digital engagement functions as a bridge, sustaining relationships, reinforcing positive norms and creating pathways that reconnect young people to real-world support systems and community life, rather than replacing them. 

City officials discussed how more attention should be given to setting clear frameworks for online engagement, investing in moderated, purpose-driven digital spaces and designing intentional on-ramps into in-person belonging (events, councils, service, mentorship and third spaces).

3. Sustainability, Tokenism and Real Power

Discussions highlighted the extent to which tokenistic youth engagement has become a systemic problem, requiring those working with young people to remain mindful of and actively work to mitigate its effects. Moreover, speakers shared that youth councils and consultations are common engagement tools, but credibility erodes when youth input does not translate into action, resources, or influence. Speakers highlighted models where youth engagement was sustained across political cycles and embedded into everyday governance.

City officials observed that sustainable youth engagement systems are built around four core design features.

• Access is ensured by meeting young people in their everyday spaces rather than expecting them to navigate formal institutional settings, such as city hall or city council chambers.
• Agency is embedded by giving youth genuine influence over decisions and outcomes, moving beyond consultation to meaningful participation.
• Accountability is maintained through feedback loops that track how youth input is used and what impact it has on policies and initiatives.
• Sustainability depends on resources, including dedicated staff time, budget authority and appropriate compensation, which signal that youth engagement is a serious institutional commitment rather than an ad hoc activity. 

4. Intergenerational Engagement

A recurring theme in the discussion was the centrality of intergenerational engagement. Panellists emphasised that the most effective initiatives strike a balance between avoiding the isolation of young people in addressing complex challenges and preventing the tokenisation of youth voices. Rather than positioning youth as symbolic participants or sole problem-solvers, these initiatives deliberately pair youth insight with adult institutional knowledge, foster mutual learning across generations and normalise shared responsibility for prevention and social cohesion as a collective endeavour. 

Speakers also emphasised a pragmatic argument for youth engagement which goes beyond building peaceful communities. They noted that cities need youth to remain competitive, vibrant and economically resilient. Youth engagement thus becomes both a peacebuilding strategy and a development imperative.

Next Steps

Strong Cities Network can support youth engagement as an effective tool for change to prevent violence, extremism and hate by:

• Supporting cities to design and implement inclusive belonging strategies, taking into account post-COVID re-socialisation dynamics and the changing ways young people connect to community in place;
• Assisting municipalities in institutionalising youth participation, including through guidance and peer learning on embedding youth voices within councils, advisory bodies and local decision-making processes;
• Promoting trust-building, intergenerational co-creation mechanisms by documenting, adapting, and scaling practices that enable meaningful collaboration between young people, municipal officials, and community actors;
• Helping cities make youth influence visible and tangible, through tools and examples that demonstrate how youth inputs translate into concrete outcomes such as budget allocations, programme design, and policy change;
• Supporting intentional engagement with young people in digital spaces, while encouraging integrated online-offline approaches that connect digital participation to sustained, in-person civic and community activities.

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• City Leadership in Partnering with Local Communities for Social Cohesion: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• National-Local Cooperation: Opportunities and Lessons Learned for Secondary and Tertiary Prevention, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• City Leadership in the Face of Rising Incivility and Polarisation: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Cities: Building a Multi-Actor Local Prevention Framework, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Manitoba Municipalities: Addressing Anti-Government Hate and Harassment, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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