Community Participation: Adding Meaning to Acess

Participatory research in urban communities must be more than using residents to reach populations that public health practitioners find difficult to find or reach. Participatory research must include community members in active decision making, in the authoring process and in giving voice to findings. When those participants are youth and young adults, skill building is an even greater imperative. Youth researchers participated in the design, administration, analysis and dissemination of the study "Connecting the Disconnected". Youth engaged in the decision making about the goals of the research, the design and development of the survey tool, live testing of questions, conducting of focus groups, administration of over 1200 surveys, managing and conducting data entry, analysis of the data, testing of the findings, preparation of presentations, design of the report document and public and private presentations of the findings to academicians, policy makers, community members, youth and funders in their community. The process included organized reflection and decision making opportunities for youth throughout the process. Most importantly the youth researchers were “disconnected” youth themselves, many having the characteristics of the community they were targeting with the survey: dropped out, unemployed, young parent, juvenile and adult court involvement, gang involvement, witness/relationship to violence. From this perspective, their voices blend with the findings to provide a powerful call to action in their community.