Youth–community–university partnerships and sense of place: two case studies of youth participatory action research

Abstract

This paper describes two youth participatory action research initiatives undertaken in East Palo Alto, CA, USA, as part of university–community partnerships. We discuss the process of engaging youth researchers to build youth skills, facilitate relationships with community-based organizations, and enhance study integrity. We report interview and artifact data that address: (1) how the youths' involvement in the research process affected their sense of place and self-efficacy for creating community change; (2) how the youths' interactions with adult community leaders shifted adult perceptions of youths' abilities and roles in the community; and (3) how the initiatives affected youth and adult participants' perspectives of the university.

Keywords:

• youth
• participatory action research
• sense of place
• university

Acknowledgements

We deeply appreciate the time and effort of our community partner organizations College Track, Live in Peace, and the Music Mural and Arts Project, and especially the youth researchers who made the projects and accompanying research efforts possible. We are also grateful to the UPS Endowment Grant at Stanford University and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation for financial support of this research.

Notes

1. The JGC works on leadership development, as well as youth-engaged and community-based participatory research, to improve youths' lives through national-level policy studies and long-term local partnerships (Kirshner, Strobel, and Fernandez 2003).

2. Because we did not interview participants before and after the program, we do not have pre- and post-participation perceptions; rather, we asked interviewees to reflect retrospectively on their program participation.

3. ‘Boojie’ is a slang term for bourgeoisie.