By Ezema Marcillinus Chijioke
This study assessed the involvement of youths in self-help community development projects in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. Five research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while the t-test statistics was used in testing the hypotheses. The population for the study was 4, 012 respondents, comprising 4, 004 registered members of community based youth organizations and 8 community leaders. The sample size for the study was 408 respondents, comprising 400 registered members of community based youth organizations and 8 community leaders. The instrument used was a well structured questionnaire. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was also used in the study. Simple Random sampling technique through balloting was used to draw the sample size. The following major findings emerged: Rural electrification, construction of community health centre, construction of community market among others were some of the self-help projects embarked upon by communities in Nsukka, Local Government Area. Extent of youth’s involvement in the planning of self-help community development projects was low. Youths were not effectively involved in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of self-help community development projects in Nsukka, L.G.A. A number of constraints prevented youths from effectively involving in self-help community development projects, poor educational background of majority of the youths, incompetent community youth organizations among others. Gender was not significant in youth’s involvement in community self-help projects. There was no significant difference between the mean rating of community leaders and youths on the constraints to youth’s involvement in self-help community development projects. Discussion of the findings, major recommendations and conclusion were also stated.