Selected Publications & Resources

The following videos are designed to increase the capacity of adults who want to collaborate with young people for youth participatory action research (YPAR). This project is made possible through a partnership between University of California Berkeley, Innovations For Youth, Colorado School of Public Health-Center for Public Health Practice with support from the YPAR Network. It is the network’s intention that watching the modules will help develop the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of educators conducting this work. Each 20-30 minute video is designed to support adults to plan and...

The Youth Inquiry in Action series is a training video series designed to help youth use inquiry tools such as focus groups, observations and photovoice to foster change in their schools and communities. Each of the three inquiry methods has four short videos explaining the method and providing the steps to implement it. The videos are designed to be direct-to-youth training and provide youth with the skills to amplify their voices and be part of data-driven decision making.

This series was produced by Innovations for Youth (i4Y) in partnership with our YEDI scholars. The production was led by...

YPAR is an innovative approach for promoting positive community change and youth development. This hub features expansive curriculum and resources to enrich YPAR projects.

To visit the YPAR Hub, click here.

Background: To address research-practice gaps, scholars are investigating the conditions that strengthen and constrain the use of research evidence. Yet these studies primarily focus on evidence that adult researchers have generated. In Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR), youth learn to conduct systematic research to improve their schools and communities. However, youth researchers face challenges similar to those experienced by adult researchers around how their findings are disseminated and used.

Methods: This article illustrates active efforts of a research-practice...

In this William T. Grant Foundation blog post, our Research Practice Partnership with San Francisco Unified School District is highlighted and explores our relational and adaptive approach centered on trust.

To read the article, click here.

Insights from the YPAR & developmental science literature (adapted Sept 2024)

In this guide, we offer illustrative YPAR examples related to student engagement primarily from UC-Berkeley’s long partnership in SF Unified with San Francisco Peer Resources and with Peer Leaders Uniting Students (PLUS) across California. But YPAR is an approach that is used across the nation and globally. Please see YPAR Hub for other examples of YPAR work nationally.

To access this YPAR Toolkit, please visit one of the links below:

The study and the practice of collaborative research between university researchers and community entities of various types have generally focused on the organizational conditions that facilitate community partners to make use of research knowledge. In this article, we propose a conceptual innovation that absorptive capacity—the ability to identify helpful new information and to absorb and apply it in new ways—is important not only for community entities but also for universities. Using our experience of collaborating at UC Berkeley between scholars engaged in collaborative research and...

We provide an overview of diverse forms of youth participation, with a focus on youth participatory action research (YPAR) and its synergies with life course intervention research to promote healthier development for young people and across the life span. We analyze why YPAR matters for research, practice, and policies related to the systems and settings in which young people develop. We also illustrate how young people perform YPAR work to improve the developmental responsiveness and equity of school and health systems, including descriptions of an innovative youth-led health center in Rwanda...

This brief invites SEL audiences concerned with promoting young people’s wellbeing to consider YPAR as a complementary approach to support students in addressing inequities that affect their wellbeing and limit their rights and opportunities to learn and thrive.

This article provides an historical review of some of the contributions of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial to the establishment and maintenance of research in child development between 1925 and 1940. In discussing the aims of the funding agency and those of the recipients, the author uses the development of the longitudinal program at the University of California, Berkeley, as a model. The influence of the Memorial on the content and direction of early research is described, and reference is made to more recent assessments of longitudinal studies.