Adolescent Engagement within Community Based Organizations: An preliminary assessment of the Medical Reserve Corps

Background/Purpose: Youth engagement is commonly defined as a youth's meaningful and sustained participation in an activity—helpful in adolescent development and effective when the eight core principles of youth engagement are applied. Participation in service activities by adolescent volunteers can be found useful within large volunteer organizations, such as the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). With hundreds of units nationwide, the MRC regularly trains medical and non-medical volunteers to respond to disasters and public health emergencies in their local communities. While few adolescents participated in MRC activities, barriers to integrating youth exist. The purpose of the proposed dissertation research is to explore the challenges and benefits of youth engagement within the MRC and its use of youth engagement strategies. Methods: A non-experimental, mixed-methods approach is used in exploring the capacity of MRC to engage youth via key informant interviews, focus groups, and a nationwide web-based survey. Qualitative data is analyzed with NVIVO 9 to investigate the recurrent themes that inform development of national survey. Results/Outcomes: Study results will reveal areas of focus for developing student MRC programs, recommended organizational policy changes and will demonstrate the context of youth engagement strategies within a large adult-focused organization such as the MRC. Conclusions: The reported usage of such strategies can show how the MRC can contribute to the positive development of adolescents. cents.