Clearer youth information, stronger participation | Keith Azzopardi Tanti

Keith Azzopardi Tanti, Parliamentary Secretary Youth, Research and Innovation

When young people don’t engage with public information, the instinctive response is often to blame apathy. But often, the problem isn’t disinterest. It’s access, relevance, and language.

Policy documents are written to be precise. They are not inviting. Opportunities are announced in ways that make sense to institutions, not to the people they’re meant to reach. And when information feels distant, technical, or disconnected from real life, young people understandably tune out. The result is missed opportunities for participation, for support, and for involvement in decisions that directly affect them.

The Youth Information Ambassadors initiative was created to address this gap in a practical way.

At its core, the initiative is based on a simple idea. Information works best when young people are involved in shaping how it is communicated. Not as an afterthought, and not as a token consultation exercise, but as active partners in the process.

Through this initiative, young people aged 16 to 25 will work in groups alongside youth workers from Aġenzija Żgħażagħ and representatives of the National Youth Council (KNŻ). Together, they will identify youth-relevant policy themes and either co-create new content or adapt existing material so that it is clearer, more accessible, and more engaging for their peers.

The aim is to make complex policy language accessible to young people without losing its original meaning or intent. Good information doesn’t lose its value when it becomes understandable.

A practical example of this approach will be the adaptation of the outcomes of the 11th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue. These documents are directly relevant to young people, yet they are often lengthy, technical, and difficult to navigate. Through a youth-led perspective, such material can be reshaped using language, formats, and channels that resonate without changing the substance of the message.

What this initiative recognises is that peer-to-peer communication matters. Young people are more likely to trust information that feels relevant, speaks their language, and is shared through channels they use. Positioning young people as information ambassadors acknowledges this reality instead of working against it.

This initiative also gives practical meaning to the National Youth Policy’s first strategic goal; listening to young people’s voices. It also reflects wider European commitments, including those reaffirmed during the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for youth held in Malta in 2025, which called for youth perspectives to be embedded across policy areas and for participation to be meaningful, not symbolic.

If we want young people to be informed, engaged, and active in public life, we need to stop treating communication as a one-way exercise. Youth Information Ambassadors is a supported, collaborative way of doing things differently; one that improves access to information while strengthening participation and trust.

Young people don’t need more explaining. They need more ownership. And when we give them that, the quality of our public conversation improves for everyone. 

Young people aged between 16 and 25 who are interested in applying for the Youth Information Ambassadors initiative can find more information and submit their application through the youth.gov.mt website, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s social media platforms, or the National Youth Council.