This announcement, created by a group of four 15- to 17-year-olds working together in Croatia, offers insights about the role of participation in human development. As discussed in Chapter 2, designing a survey for other youth across the former Yugoslavia was an activity to promote connection and reflection from increasing positions of youth power. Employing skills of critical reflection, adolescents' ongoing development involves participating for the benefit of others as well as themselves. Increasingly complex collaborative activities can support that development.

Figure 5.1 and the accompanying invitation to complete a youth survey illustrate how participants in the DSTY workshop communicated, in this case magnanimously, with “youth of the world” to “fill out our survey” and “allow us to find out what you would like to change in your community.” Like other participants creating their own surveys across the political-violence system, these teenagers appeal directly – “we” are asking “you” – no abstraction or passive expression here! Choosing uppercase letters, they emphasize their enthusiasm. These friends converse among themselves about what they would like to know from the children of their parents' former adversaries and how they should ask such questions.