Many political parties have “youth wings,” extensions of parties that provide a space for young people to meaningfully participate and develop their skills alongside the main party structure. These extensions of the main party structure have been used to counter declining youth political party membership. 

Youth wings generally serve four different functions, all of which could provide entry points to enhance youth political participation.

• Youth wings are powerbases for their members, facilitating networking and the formation of personal and/or issue-based alliances.
• Youth wings can provide a training ground for young members who wish to excel within party structures. Examples of training include skill-building workshops, mentoring programmes, and policy development activities.
• Youth wings can be a place for young people to influence party policy development and leadership selection.  Assuming the youth wing has been given adequate powers, this party extension can provide a fresh outlook on potentially outdated policies and ideas. 
• Youth wings can extend outreach to young voters, in a bid to make parties more credible to young people. Youth wings can be a useful resource for creating the appropriate language, platform, material and tone in communicating political messages to younger voting bases during election and recruitment campaigns.

Political party leadership, however, has not always taken youth wings seriously, especially if they do not agree on policy. An example of not taking youth wings seriously, is when their mandates are limited to supporting campaigns and/or recruiting new party members. In such instances, they often are given no power to influence nomination processes, set agendas or write party manifestos.

When youth wings are set up correctly they can provide a space that helps to overcome the obstacles young people face in participating in electoral internal party processes.