The flower of participation was developed by CHOICE in order to give a better understanding of youth participation. The flower is based on the ‘ladder of participation’ by Roger Hart, however, because a ladder denotes a hierarchical or evolutionary system whereby the highest level is the ultimate goal, CHOICE decided to instead use a flower which we feel better reflects that there are multiple ways to for young people to participate and that the type of participation will depend on various factors. The most important of these factors are:  (1) level of training, (2) available time, (3) if the people involved are volunteers or if they are being paid for their time, (4) available funds, and (5) level of investment of adult organizations in all of the above.