Building Bonds, Healing Youth: Prioritizing Youth Critical Consciousness Development in CBPR

Briana Woods-Jaeger,Paige O'Connor,Teesha Miller,Kelsey Christensen,Chakilah Wade,D'Marko Price,Briana Boykin,Jannette Berkley-Patton

doi:10.35844/001c.13271

Abstract

Community violence continues to be a major national public health issue that disproportionately impacts African American youth. Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches have been recommended to address youth violence and provide an opportunity to partner in research with those most impacted to develop new strategies. In this brief report we describe specific capacity building efforts in our CBPR project, Building Bonds, Healing Youth, which aims to develop and test a community-level intervention to promote resilience among African American youth exposed to community violence. We specifically describe our capacity building efforts that centered around developing youth critical consciousness and highlight specific methods that we employed. Reflections from our youth partners highlight the potential impact of incorporating youth critical consciousness development into capacity building efforts with youth partners. This brief report supports incorporating critical consciousness in CBPR with youth to promote mutual benefit as youth contribute their lived experiences, expertise, and commitment to improving research addressing youth health and well-being.

Highlights

Community violence is a major public health issue that disproportionately impacts African American (AA) youth
AA youth are more likely to be exposed to ongoing community violence than White youth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009; Morgan & Truman, 2019) and experience a myriad of related health and well-being issues (Busby et al, 2013; Kliewer et al, 2019; Voisin et al, 2016)
New strategies are necessary to address the needs of AA youth burdened with the consequences of community violence

Summary

BRIEF REPORTS

Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches have been recommended to address youth violence and provide an opportunity to partner in research with those most impacted to develop new strategies In this brief report we describe specific capacity building efforts in our CBPR project, Building Bonds, Healing Youth, which aims to develop and test a community-level intervention to promote resilience among African American youth exposed to community violence. CBPR approaches are recommended to address youth violence (David-Ferdon & Simon, 2014) and provide an opportunity to partner with those most impacted to address public health gaps and build community capacity in the process (Collins et al, 2018) In this brief report, we describe capacity-building efforts in our CBPR project

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