Youth-Centered Participatory Action Research: Creating Spaces of Resistance and Change amid

Inherent Inequalities

Helene BermanAbe OudshoornJessica Justrabo

Oct 15, 2013

Faculty of Health Sciences

Promoting Health Through Collaborative Engagement with

Youth: Overcoming, Resisting, and

Preventing Structural ViolenceCIHR Team Grant

Our Team

Academics from varied disciplines, at various career stages, from Halifax to Victoria

Students, Post-Doctoral FellowsNational Coordinator

Maria CallaghanNational Youth Coordinators

Alia El-TayebEugenia Canas

National Youth Advisory Board Knowledge Users/Community Partners

Academic Researchers

Nominated Principal Investigator–Helene Berman- Western University

Co-Principal Investigators– Dominique Damant – University of Montreal

– Holly Johnson – University of Ottawa

– Cathy Richardson – University of Victoria

– Billie Thurston – University of Calgary

– Marnina Gonick – Mount Saint Vincent University

Co-Investigators– Kendra Nixon- University of Manitoba Cheryl Forchuk – Western

University

– Mandy Grzyb – Western University Peter Jaffe – Western University

– Abe Oudshoorn – Western University Lori Donelle – Western University

– Yasmin Jiwani – Concordia University Simon Lapierre – University of Ottawa

– Lynda Ashbourne – U of Guelph Myrna Dawson – U of Guelph

– Joan Samuels – Dennis – York U Marc Molgat – U of Ottawa

Knowledge UsersLead Knowledge Users–Public Health Agency of Canada – Lindsay Olmstead–mindyourmind – Maria Luisa Contursi

Knowledge Users–Girls’ Action Foundation Boys & Girls Club–York University, Housing and Homelessness Hub–CAMH-CPS–Canadian Counsel of Muslim Women–Relais- Femmes–Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services–YWCA Halifax–City of London–City of Calgary–Ottawa Youth Services Bureau–Alberta Health Services–Sexual Assault Centre London–Native Sexual Health Network–Alliance of Canadian Research Centres on Violence

Community Partners•Muslim Centre for Social Support and

Integration•Ottawa Youth Services Bureau•Urban Aboriginal Youth Services•Calgary Homeless Foundation•Alliance of Research Centres on

Violence•Lowertown Community Resource Centre•One World Arts•Raincity Shelter•Transition House•Watson Lake High school•YWCA Halifax

Youth Leaders• National Youth Coordinators:

– Alia El Tayeb

– Eugenia Canas

• National Youth Advisory Board:

– Amanda Aziz

– Curtis Walking Bear Kechego

– Michelle Brake

– Emanuela Bringi

– Julia Tadman

– Jayson Tower

– Keara Yim

CollaboratorsLinda Dale, Children /Youth as Peace BuildersRobin Mason, Women’s College HospitalBlake Poland, University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Graduate Student Trainees Kate Elliott, University of VictoriaCatherine Flynn, Université de MontréalNada Nessan, Western University

Post Doctoral FellowsRita Isabel HendersonKristy Buccieri

Overall Purpose

• To examine how structural violence is experienced by youth in Canada, how it influences their health, and strategies that can be used to address and prevent violence.

• Evaluate how collaborative engagement with youth can promote health by empowering them to address structural violence in their lives.

Objectives

1. Examine how structural forms of violence are defined, understood, and experienced by youth

2. Examine, from the perspectives of youth, how structural violence shapes their health and well-being

Objectives

3. Examine policies to identify how institutions contribute to the victimization or vulnerability of diverse groups of youth and how these policies influence them.

Objectives

4. Analyse the role of media in the lives of youth paying attention to issues of identity, belonging/exclusion, health and sense of self

5. Evaluate the use of youth-centered participatory action research as a health promotion strategy

Theoretical/Methodological Perspectives

• Youth-Centered Participatory Action Research

• Intersectionality

• Critical Narrative Analysis

• Arts-Based Methodologies

• Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Rethinking…

• ResearchWhat counts as knowledgeWhose knowledge countsHow knowledge is generatedWho owns it

Rethinking…

• ViolenceStructural Violence

The invisible patterns of inequality that reproduce social relations of exclusion and marginalization through ideologies, stigmas and discourses attendant to gender, race, class and other markers of social identity

Rethinking…

•HealthHealth is a right for all people, not a privilege.

We can’t achieve this as long as we live in a world with social and structural inequalities

Racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism, colonialism

Civic engagement, social and political action are key components of health

“This made me realize how sharing experience is important

for us to live a happier life.”

“Everyone had a voice, were creating information together, following each other’s leads and ideas.”

Youth Opportunities Unlimited Site

Voices Against Violence

Purpose

•Examine how structural violence is embedded and enacted within different institutional systems.

About YOU-YAC

•Youth Opportunities Unlimited: – Supports youth to build skills, confidence and

independence to reach their potential.

•Youth Action Centre: – A multi-service hub, where youth can feel

welcomed and gain support with a variety of personal challenges that impede their development.

Our Methodology

•Relationship based recruitment

•12 Arts Based Workshops

The Youth

• 9 male, 6 female

• Majority had some experience as children/youth with CAS

• 3 were visible minorities

• 6 identified as having learning disabilities

• 4 identified as having mental health challenges

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Process Pieces

•Structural Violence Timelines

•Body Mapping

•Statement of Change Poetry

•Canvas Art

– Justice System– Child Protection– Shelter Services (and Social Assistance)– Education System

Leading to Exploration of…

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Outcome

•Data through discussions – Experiences with Structural Violence– How to change social structures– How to move on from negative experiences

•Art– Personal Canvas– Statements of Change

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Challenges

• Acute mental illness

• Triggering

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What They Learned

•Why policies exist

•What is Structural Violence

•Self Reflection

•Move on from negative experiences

- Agency/structure dialectic

What We Learned

•Participating, not participants

•Stability of the family structure

•Listening makes an impact