Youth of Color in the United States are often leaders in movements for social justice. Evidence suggests that organizing has a positive macro-therapeutic effect on the mental health of young organizers; however, they can also experience strain and become targets of the very systems they are trying to change. In a community-based participatory action research study, three organizations that train youth of Color in organizing in Brooklyn, New York City held focus groups with youth and adult staff. The focus groups examined the strains experienced by youth organizers and the strategies adult partners use to prepare organizers to maintain hope and well-being. Findings suggest four key emergent strategies: (a) provide an emotional homespace to process the rub between worlds, (b) actively shape the long view on systems change, (c) increase self-care skills and emotional preparation for organizing, and (d) promote healing by building leader(full) communities.
AnyiwoN.BañalesJ.RowleyS. J.WatkinsD. C.Richards-SchusterK. (2018). Sociocultural influences on the sociopolitical development of African American youth. Child Development Perspectives, 12(3), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12276
2.
BettencourtG. M. (2020). Embracing problems, processes, and contact zones: Using youth participatory action research to challenge adultism. Action Research, 18, 153–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750318789475
3.
BlancoA.BlancoR.DíazD. (2016). Social (dis)order and psychosocial trauma: Look earlier, look outside, and look beyond the persons. American Psychologist, 71(3), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040100
ChristensB.JonesD. L.SpeerP. W. (2008). Power, conflict, and spirituality: A qualitative study of faith-based community organizing. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.1.330
CreswellJ. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
12.
ErlandsonD. A.HarrisE. L.SkipperB. L.AllenS. D. (1993). Doing naturalistic inquiry. SAGE.
13.
FergusonK. M.TeixeiraS.WernickL. J.BurghardtS. (2018). Macro interventions and their influence on individual and community well-being. Journal of Social Work, 18(6), 679–702. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017318757160
14.
FineM. (1992). Disruptive voices: The possibilities of feminist research. University of Michigan Press.
15.
FineM.FreudenbergN.PayneY.PerkinsT.SmithK.WanzerK. (2003). “Anything can happen with police around”: Urban youth evaluate strategies of surveillance in public places. Journal of Social Issues, 59(1), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.t01-1-00009
16.
FineM.TorreM. E. (2019). Critical participatory action research: A feminist project for validity and solidarity. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 43(4), 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684319865255
17.
FranklinS. (2014). Black youth, social movement activism, and the post-civil rights generation: After the rebellion. New York University Press.
18.
FranklinS. (2016). Black youth activism and the reconstruction of America: Leaders, organizations, and tactics in the twentieth century and beyond. Black History Bulletin, 79(1), 5–14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/blachistbull.79.1.0005
19.
FrostD. M.FineM.TorreM. E.CabanaA. (2019). Minority stress, activism, and health in the context of economic precarity: Results from a national participatory action survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and gender non-conforming youth. American Journal of Community Psychology, 63, 511–526. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12326
20.
GinwrightS. (2015). Hope and healing in urban education: How urban activists and teachers are reclaiming matters of the heart. Routledge. https://doi-org/10.1080/00131946.2016.1231684
GinwrightS. A. (2010). Black youth rising: Activism and radical healing in urban America. Teachers College Press.?
23.
GinwrightS.JamesT. (2002). From assets to agents of change: Social justice, organizing, and youth development. New Directions for Youth Development, 2002(96), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.25
24.
GreeneA. C. (2020). Grassroots tales: Journeying of inward healing and outward movement building (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). City University of New York, Graduate Center.
25.
GrinageJ. (2019). Endless mourning: Racial melancholia, black grief, and the transformative possibilities for racial justice in education. Harvard Educational Review, 89(2), 227–250. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-89.2.227
26.
GrosfoguelR. (2013). The structure of knowledge in westernized universities: Epistemic racism/sexism and the four genocides/epistemicides of the long 16th century. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 11(1), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137292896_2
27.
HardenT. D. (2014). Street life–oriented African American males and violence as a public health concern. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 24(6), 678–693. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2014.930300
28.
HendersonZ.StephensT.Ortega-WilliamsA.WaltonQ. (2021). Conceptualizing healing through the African American experience of historical trauma. Journal of Orthopsychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000578
29.
HoSangD. (2006). Beyond policy: Ideology, race, and the reimagining of youth. In GinwrightS.NogueraP.CammerotaJ. (Eds.), Beyond resistance: Youth activism and community change: New democratic possibilities for practice and policy for America’s youth (pp. 3–19). Routledge.
30.
HutchinsonA.LovellA. (2013). Participatory action research: Moving beyond the mental health “service user” identity. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 20, 641–649. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12001
31.
JemalA. (2018). Transformative consciousness of health inequities: Oppression is a virus and critical consciousness is the antidote. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 3(4), 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-018-0061-8
KulickA.WernickL. J.WoodfordM. R.RennK. (2017). Heterosexism, depression, and campus engagement among LGBTQ college students: Intersectional differences and opportunities for healing. Journal of Homosexuality, 64(8), 1125–1141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2016.1242333
35.
LernerR. M.FisherC. B.WeinbergR. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71(1), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00113
36.
LordeA. (1984). Sister outsider. Crossing Press.
37.
McCrackenG. (1988). The long interview. SAGE.
38.
MoragaC.AnzaldúaG. (Eds.). (1981). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Suny Press.
Ortega-WilliamsA. (2020). Organizing as “Collective-Self” Care Among African American Youth in Precarious Times. Journal of African American Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09506-2
41.
Ortega-WilliamsA.WernickL.J.DeBowerJ.BrathwaiteB. (2020). Finding Relief in Action: The intersection of youth-led community organizing and mental health in Brooklyn. Youth & Society, 52(4), 618–638. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X18758542
42.
OzerE. J. (2017). Youth-led participatory action research: Overview and potential for enhancing adolescent development. Child Development Perspectives, 11(3), 173–177. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12228
Purdie-VaughnsV.SteeleC. M.DaviesP. G.DitlmannR.CrosbyJ. R. (2008). Social identity contingencies: How diversity cues signal threat or safety for African Americans in mainstream institutions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 615–630. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.615
45.
Richards-SchusterK.Plachta ElliottS. (2019). A practice matrix for involving young people in evaluation: Possibilities and considerations. American Journal of Evaluation, 40(4), 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214019832113
46.
Richards-SchusterK.TimmermansR. (2017). Conceptualizing the role of adults within youth-adult partnerships: An example from practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 81, 284–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.07.023
47.
RodriguezM. (2020). More than one pandemic: How New York City community members fight against coronavirus and systematic oppression. Social Work Education, 39(8), 983–992, https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2020.1825665
SteinbergS. R.CannellaG. S. (Eds.). (2012). Critical qualitative reader. Peter Lang.
52.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. SAGE Publications.
53.
SzakosK. L.SzakosJ. (2007). We make change: Community organizers talk about what they do—and why. Vanderbilt University Press.
54.
TeixeiraS.AugsbergerA.Richards-SchusterK.Sprague MartinezL. (2021). Participatory research approaches with youth: Ethics, engagement, and meaningful action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68, 142–153. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12501
55.
TorreM. E.FineM.AlexanderN.BillupsA. B.BlandingY.GenaoE.MarboeE.SalahT.UrdangK. (2008). Participatory action research in the contact zone. In CammarotaJ.FineM. (Eds.), Revolutionizing education: Youth participatory action research in motion (pp. 23–43). Routledge.
56.
TravisR.LeechT. G. J. (2014). Empowerment-based positive youth development: A new understanding of healthy development for African American youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(1), 93–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12062
WardJ. V. (2000). Raising resisters: The role of truth telling in the psychological development of African American girls. In WeisL.FineM. (Eds.), Construction sites: Excavating race, class, and gender among urban youth (pp. 50–64). Teachers College Press.
61.
WattsR. J.WilliamsN. C.JagersR. J. (2003). Sociopolitical development. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(1–2), 185–194. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023091024140
62.
WernickL.J.KulickA.WoodfordM.R. (2014). How theater within a transformative organizing framework cultivates individual and collective empowerment among LGBTQQ youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 42(7), https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21656
63.
WernickL. J.WoodfordM. R.SidenJ. Y. (2010). Youth-led participatory action research: Fostering effective youth-adult partnerships. Participatory Partnerships for Social Action and Research, 165–186.
