Evaluation Method Spotlight: Youth Participatory Action Research
Written by Amy Merritt Campbell
At Elevate, we strongly believe that evaluation and research must go beyond the numbers to tell the stories of people and communities. As such, we believe in the value of qualitative and community-based, participatory methods and approaches, including participatory action research (PAR). Specifically, we recently had the privilege to support Nashville’s Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) in conducting a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project with its Youth Leadership Team to inform the strategy of the OYC.
What is YPAR?
YPAR is an innovative approach to positive youth and community development in which young people are trained to conduct systematic research about their own lives, communities, and the institutions intended to serve them. Similar to other engagement methods or approaches for this population, YPAR achieves dual goals of 1) enhancing the work by bringing cultural relevance and new perspectives and 2) supporting the development of youth participants by providing opportunities for empowerment, connections to both adults and peers, and skill development. While grounded in traditional social science research methods and processes, the key difference between YPAR and traditional research methods is that youth researchers are involved to some degree in the development of research questions and data collection methods, analysis of data and interpretation of findings, and decisions about recommendations and dissemination methods.
Our Example
Opportunity Youth (OY) are individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who are disconnected from education and employment, causing them to be more at risk for experiencing poverty, dropping out of high school, and other issues inhibiting their success. In Nashville, similar to other cities across the U.S. as a whole, certain marginalized populations are disproportionately affected by this harsh reality. In Nashville, specifically, youth identifying as Black, female, and over 18 years old make up a larger proportion of OY. In the summer of 2018, the Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) formed to develop strategies to narrow opportunity gaps for young adults in the Nashville community.
The OYC, comprised of a diverse group of representatives from youth- and young adult-serving agencies from throughout the city, and supported by the Nashville Career Advancement Center, committed to a 6-month long process to understand the ecosystem of organizations, policies, and practices with which OY interact and how that ecosystem might be adapted to better serve this population. Following the lead of many cities nationwide, the OYC also sought to implement a research project to run concurrently with the OYC’s 6-month initial exploration process to identify both the barriers that young people experience in connecting/reconnecting with education and employment and the facilitators that supported them in achieving their goals. These findings would then inform recommendations for strategies for the OYC to undertake.
Similar to other nationwide efforts, the OYC sought to commission a mixed methods study to gain insight from a large number of diverse young people; however, out of a commitment to honoring values of equity and youth empowerment, the OYC felt that a more participatory methodology was most appropriate in helping them achieve their goals. As such, the OYC worked with Elevate and Brandon Hill (a youth engagement specialist with a background in community research efforts) to design and implement a research project informed by the tenets of YPAR.
This research took place over the summer and fall of 2018, with a research team of 8-12 OY researchers working diligently to implement the project. Youth researchers explored the landscape of systems and services designed to support the young adult and OY population in Davidson County, as well as the barriers and facilitators they themselves had experienced while navigating systems and services. They supported the development of a survey and focus group protocol and then canvassed their neighborhoods to collect survey data. Youth also facilitated focus groups and provided critical interpretation once data had been analyzed.
The findings from this research contributed to the development of a report released by the OYC this summer, titled “Centering Youth Voice: Collaborating with Opportunity Youth to Foster Systems Change.” The recommendations in this report serve as the foundation for the Opportunity Youth Collaborative’s strategic initiatives. A full report of the findings from the YPAR effort will be released later in 2020.
What We Learned
With community-based research approaches like YPAR, involving participants requires tradeoffs between rigor and relevance. These potential tradeoffs are related primarily to the level of rigor that can be achieved; often, participants in this type of research are not skilled statisticians, and therefore analyses are limited to those that are less rigorous. Also, allowing youth researchers to collect data from those young people closest to them (i.e., convenience sampling) can lead to over- or under-representation in the data. This work is often highly relevant in local contexts, but not often generalizable to other populations. The benefits of doing this kind of research are that the methods, data collection tools, processes, and interpretation of data are all informed by the target population; that is, the research is validated at every step of the process to ensure cultural relevance and the findings are truly informed by participants. Participation in this kind of work can build professional capacity, social capital, and community engagement among participants. Often, these benefits outweigh the tradeoffs, especially when the target population’s voice is typically underrepresented in decision-making spaces, but they must be considered to ensure that YPAR or PAR is truly a good fit.
Youth or community researchers often experience the same systemic barriers and challenges that the research seeks to understand. For OY, barriers include transportation, childcare, managing multiple competing responsibilities, and navigating the obstacles in developing their own professional skills and competencies. This posed a challenge not only in conducting the project, but also in getting young people engaged in the first place. This population is underrepresented in many youth leadership programs, and due to the nature of the barriers they experience, it is often difficult to identify disconnected youth who fit squarely into the target population, engage them, and keep them engaged and supported throughout the project. Project partners found that paying youth an hourly wage, selecting meeting locations and times that were convenient to youth, and providing meals worked well to address some of these barriers and keep youth engaged.
This process is meaningful not only for knowledge contributions in the field, but also for the young people who participate. In a debrief session, youth researchers in our YPAR project shared the personal impact of their participation in this work. They described this element in several ways, including:
Improvements to their professional skills, including soft skills like communication and presenting, as well as technical skills related to research;
Increases in their ability to understand and relate to their peers, thus deepening their capacity for empathy and understanding; and
Increases in their capacity to see their “story” in relation to the stories of their peers, and recognizing that they are not alone in their struggle to increase their self-sufficiency and achieve their goals.
These benefits provide young people with critical skills, knowledge, and capacities that they can leverage in their own journeys to achieve their goals. The connections they gain and the networks they build by doing work alongside and in partnership with adult partners provide them with a supportive network of caring adults, as well as professional references that can support them in their future employment. Finally, the relationships they are able to build with adult partners inspire new ways of thinking about the world, both for young people and the adults with whom they are collaborating.
Flexibility and continuous reflection on the balance of power are critical. Young people bring exciting and innovative new ideas to the forefront, both in ways that support the research and ways that enhance the broader landscape of related work. Creating space for youth research teams to mobilize this innovation and creativity, rather than maintaining a rigid commitment to a pre-determined work plan is important to ensuring long-term engagement and fully capitalizing upon the energy and inventiveness that young people add to the work.
Also, those considering utilizing YPAR should thoughtfully consider their ability to provide appropriate support to youth researchers. Youth researchers often benefit from adults’ experience with research and evaluation methods, project management, professional development support, and encouragement. However, the delicate balance between supporting young people in implementing a project of their own design and “driving the train” can be a difficult one to navigate, especially if stakes are high. Adult partners (and youth researchers) should regularly reflect on the power dynamics present to ensure they stay in balance throughout the project.
Ultimately, YPAR or PAR can be an engaging, empowering experience for young people and community members and can contribute significantly to the validity of findings of any research or evaluation effort. Embarking on these projects with intentionality and adequate resources can ensure the process is equitable and findings are credible and meaningful to help drive social change.
Resources
To learn more about YPAR, check out these resources:
