Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous Youth in PAR

Abstract

This article presents the process used in a Participatory Research Project with Canadian Indigenous youth aimed at understanding their civic and cultural engagement. Specifically, we reflect on the approach taken, together with the core role of community partners in facilitating youth participation in this project. The process we used had three key aspects which facilitated effective youth engagement. First was flexibility and adaptability of the original study design, allowing the young people to adjust the project design, increasing their comfort levels and in doing so, assume as much or as little ownership of the process as they wanted. Second was building on preexisting relationships between mental health service provider staff and the community, which accelerated the establishment of trust. Through this trust, new relationships within the research team were able to develop. Third was the support of the youth engagement by the service provider staff, which provided support as required. This process improved the quality of the data collected, related findings, and for effective dissemination. Importantly, this staff–youth interaction has also increased longevity of the dissemination process. Our intent in reflecting on this process here is to further the dialogue on how to meaningfully engage ordinarily silenced and/or marginalized youth in research and evaluation as well as the sharing of findings.