A Youth-Participatory Action Approach to Co-developing a Public Health Professional Series for Youth-Serving Agencies in Pima County, AZ

Abstract

Background: Public health professionals recognize the importance of creating safe spaces todevelop solutions with youth to assess dominant social structures and their impacts on the lives of socially marginalized youth. In Pima County, AZ, over 16,700 Opportunity Youth are not engaged in school or work due to social and economic barriers. Research has shown that empowerment-based groups, like those developed in this project, have been found to promote youth development, including increased self-efficacy to overcome personal challenges and community issues, a stronger sense of identity and engagement, and prevention of youth engaging in risky behaviors. In Tucson, Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona and its youth programming (METRO) have prioritized making professional development opportunities available for its affiliate organizations and members regarding best practices to engage more Opportunity Youth in a meaningful way. The primary outcome of this dissertation project was to co-develop a public health training course in positive communication and interactions between youth and adults that work in agencies that serve Opportunity Youth. Methods: This dissertation describes the process of amplifying Opportunity Youth voices to include them in the conversation utilizing the theoretical construct of youth participatory action research (yPAR). n=39 Opportunity Youth enrolled in METRO participated in think tank sessions and provided insight into what topics are important to include in the training course. Components of the year-long student-led process, Project SLATE (n=4), included (1) teambuilding and qualitative analysis, (2) exploration of themes that pertain to youth interactions with 10 adults, (3) action planning and development of a training course on microaggressions, (4) dissemination and implementation of the training course, and (5) an iterative feedback loop with youth and adults to evaluate the process and desired outcomes. Results: Project SLATE (students and researchers) co-developed a 45-minute, interactive online course about the impact of microaggressions and how to avoid them with the Western Regional Public Health Training Center and disseminated across local youth-serving agencies affiliated with METRO. Other deliverables of this project included a best practices and recommendations report to highlight and strengthen METRO’s high-quality youth re-engagement strategies and a lesson-learned manuscript with recommendations for yPAR in practice. Discussion: The assessment of yPAR indicated that it is working but requires time, patience and cannot be rushed. Researchers need to build rapport with the target population and project participants through various strategies tested in this project. Establishing trust and maintaining momentum in yPAR projects will require flexibility and innovative strategies to entice research participants, youth, and community partners alike. Recommendations: Researchers must consider the incentives and skills gained from experience by participants in a project of this scope. Consistent communication and feedback loops via nontraditional means aided in the continual improvement of the project. Finally, a researcher must navigate how to adapt applied practice deliverables to meet the changing needs of partner organizations over time.