This article presents and discusses the meanings constructed by adolescents and young people in institutional contexts various in Barreiro (BH) and Betim (MG) about their experiences of social and political participation, through the inclusion in groups. The participants of this research answered a questionnaire composed of closed and open-ended questions about your background familial and participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of participation and community group. The content of the interviews was treated by means of content analysis. The participation of the subjects of this study in the various groups of motivated by a sense of belonging, and the ties of friendship between the members of the group, usually the schoolmates or friends from the neighborhood. These experiences mean for these young people an exercise in social participation and community understood by them as a collective activity that aims to transform the immediate reality in which they live.
adolescence; youth; participation; groups