Engaging and sustaining youth in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) partnerships using youth development models

CBPR is designed to include communities as full partners in research. Our project, Bronx Youth As Partners (BYAP), uses CBPR to engage youth as equal partners in reducing mental health disparities. Although there is an existing literature on strategies to engage communities in CBPR, little is available on how to engage and retain youth as partners. Implementing a full partnership with youth requires unique methods and an experienced adult staff to coordinate, recruit, facilitate, engage and sustain involvement, and to provide the structure and skills youth need to participate. We relied on Youth Development (YD) models which share philosophical and theoretical principles with CBPR. We will describe general YD approaches (e.g., strength-based; making intentional connections with youth; viewing young people as resources and at the center of their own growth) and specific actions we took (e.g. building core developmental skills; structuring the partnership to support their contribution and collaboration; engaging in active co-learning; collaborating with organizations that help fulfill youth needs) that were successful in assuring full participation, power sharing and community asset building. YD interventions provide specific tools to accomplish the goals of CBPR with youth, while addressing the challenges of building an equitable partnership with youth who are at a power disadvantage with their academic adult partners.