The Mentoring Program’s Guide To Youth Participatory Action Research
Integrating Meaningful Research Opportunities into Mentoring Services
For many years, those who work in the mentoring field have wondered how they can extend the impact of their programs beyond the benefits experienced by young people they serve. There has been an increasing desire within our field to harness the power of mentoring to enable the youth served in a program to not just grow individually, but to collaborate and partner with one another, their mentors, and program staff, to use their talents and voices to influence wider positive changes in their communities. This resource highlights one potential path to this extended impact of mentoring programs: youth participatory action research (YPAR)
YPAR is uniquely suited as an approach to implement within mentoring contexts and offers a wide array of benefits like:
- Promoting positive change within youth programs and communities
- Building youth skills and guiding what mentors and youth do together
- Positively impacting youth and adult participants (e.g. enhancing trust-building in mentoring relationships, supporting youth’s interest in issues that are important to them)
- Supporting evaluation of the mentoring program itself
In the guidebook, readers can discover more about the background and benefits of YPAR, information on the process and guidance for using the approach, planning worksheets for adults in mentoring programs to get started, and more!
Click the video links below to learn more about the direct experiences of programs profiled in the guidebook that are conducting YPAR in their community
Program Overviews – Learn more about each program’s experience with YPAR from start to finish.
Youth Enrichment Services YPAR Overview
Linked Mentoring YPAR Overview
MENTOR Independence Region YPAR Overview
First Exposures YPAR Overview
Youth Participant Perspectives – Tips for youth and adults on how to get involved and facilitate a YPAR initiative.
1: Raheen & Tymajah, MENTOR Independence Region
2: Tymajah & Raheen, MENTOR Independence Region
Pre-Work to Get Ready Phase – This preliminary phase involves taking time to have conversations about and reflect on your organization’s readiness for YPAR.
3: Abigail Ellis, MENTOR Independence Region
4: Denise Jones, Youth Enrichment Services
Bringing Adults and Youth Together Phase – This phase involves deciding how YPAR will be integrated into the program, deciding who will participate, and forming a YPAR team.
5: Erik Auerbach, First Exposures
6: Denise Jones, Youth Enrichment Services
Choosing and Learning About a Topic Phase – In this phase, adults and youth collaboratively decide on a research topic for their YPAR project with a focus on building relationships, sharing decision-making power, and centering youth perspectives.
7: Jake Sullivan, Linked Mentoring
8: Denise Jones, Youth Enrichment Services
Information-Gathering and Interpreting Results Phase – In this phase, the YPAR collective gathers and analyzes data on the issue they have chosen to explore, with youth playing a key role in shaping how the research is conducted.
9: Denise Jones, Youth Enrichment Services
10: Abigail Ellis, MENTOR Independence Region
Sharing and Acting on Findings Phase – In this phase, youth and adults put the research findings into action, which can take the form of sharing findings with program stakeholders, raising awareness, advocating for policy changes, or improving community spaces among others.
11: Denise Jones, Youth Enrichment Services
12: Erik Auerbach, First Exposures
Reflection and Change Phase – During this phase, youth and adults consider their findings, generating sustainable solutions for long-term change, and fostering a cycle of continuous improvement.
13: Abigail Ellis, MENTOR Independence Region
14: Jake Sullivan, Linked Mentoring