Voices of Youth

“Imagine a place where co-operation comes before competition; care for others comes before jealous self-interest and a desire for collective growth comes before the need to guard what you have. Imagine a place where respect for ‘people with different perspectives’ replaces mistrust of ‘people not like you’, where a feeling of safety replaces a feeling of fear, where involvement replaces isolation. For me, that is a community, and anything you do to bring that ideal closer, that is citizenship.”

– 18-year-old from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (male)

This entry is part of a series of essays and messages from the publication "Adolescence - Beyond the Stereotypes" - written, compiled and edited by adolescents and young people themselves with support from Voices of Youth and UNICEF.