Integrating Principles of Positive Minority Youth Development with Health Promotion to Empower the Immigrant Community: A Case Study in Chicago

ABSTRACT

Growing vulnerabilities among immigrant families are further complicated by the context of US health care. This article discusses the critical need for health promotion initiatives that integrate principles of positive minority youth development. Mixed methods, including a CBPR (community-based participatory research) approach, are used to highlight narratives of immigrant youth who have participated in a health-promotion program infused within their high school curriculum. These narratives underscore contributing contextual influences and pathways to conscientization, civic action, how programming can effectively facilitate positive minority youth development, as well as individual and community-level empowerment that leads to increased health literacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Conscientization
• health promotion
• immigrant youth
• political efficacy
• positive minority development
• undocumented

Acknowledgments

I give special thanks to Miriam Perez, Reverend Walter Coleman, and YHSC staff who have been integral to this project and the broader “5 + 1 = 20” campaign; as well as all study participants who have generously shared their story. Thanks also to DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning, Center for Latino Studies, and the University Research Council’s Public Service Grant for supporting this research; and Aracely Galvan, Bernadette Muloski, and Durrell Sheppard who have provided hours of research assistance on this project.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms were used for each participant quoted in this paper.