Youth empowerment refers to the process of equiping young individuals with the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to take control of their lives and make positive changes in their communities. It emphasizes the importance of fostering a sense of agency among youth, enabling them to express their opinions, make decisions, and act on their beliefs. This concept also involves providing opportunities for participation, leadership, and self-advocacy, allowing youth to contribute positively to their communities and influence social change.

Youth empowerment is a process where children and young people are encouraged to take charge of their lives. They do this by addressing their situation and then take action in order to improve their access to resources and transform their consciousness through their beliefs, values, and attitudes. Youth empowerment aims to improve quality of life. Youth empowerment is achieved through participation in youth empowerment programs. However scholars argue that children's rights implementation should go beyond learning about formal rights and procedures to give birth to a concrete experience of rights. There are numerous models that youth empowerment programs use that help youth achieve empowerment. A variety of youth empowerment initiatives are underway around the world. These programs can be through non-profit organizations, government organizations, schools or private organizations.

Youth empowerment is different from youth development because development is centered on developing individuals, while empowerment is focused on creating greater community change relies on the development of individual capacity.