Empowering Immigrant Youth in Chicago: Utilizing CBPR to Document the Impact of a Youth Health Service Corps Program

Purpose: This paper analyzes a youth empowerment program, Chicago’s Youth Health Service Corps (YSHC), from a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) perspective. The purpose of this work is (1) to describe an innovative community-based youth healthcare education model, (2) discuss how it developed,  (3) examine why CBPR is the appropriate research method for this work, and (4) discuss preliminary findings in light of a model on critical youth empowerment (Jennings et. al, 2006).

Background: Vulnerabilities among immigrant youth are increasingly evident as the social, emotional, and educational outcomes of second generation children are often worse than those of their first generation immigrant parents (Garcia Coll & Marks, 2012), and as they often experience significant barriers to healthcare and educational attainment (Gonzales, 2011).  Despite these vulnerabilities, critical social theory of positive youth development helps to examine factors that contribute to adolescent resilience within low-income neighborhoods and schools with high dropout rates.

Method: Utilizing a mixed methods approach, close-code surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted with  high school students enrolled  in YHSC.   This study uses critical social theory and interpretive frame analyses (Brandwein, 2006) to highlight the narratives of immigrant youth in the context of healthcare reform. To date, ten young people in the YHSC program have completed in-depth semi-structured interviews in which they were asked to reflect on the challenges experienced as immigrant youth, and how the program has impacted them and their community. All participants in the program are Latino or Latin American youth between the ages of 14 and 18 years who live in Chicago. Three of these participants are male.

Results: Preliminary findings reveal that all youth surveyed and interviewed (n=10) have had positive experiences with YHSC and feel that it is a worthwhile program. Preliminary qualitative data has yielded rich descriptions of the lived experiences of YHSC participant youth, the unique challenges they face, and the individual reasons of why they stay engaged. Narratives suggest that the YHSC program allows them to develop leadership skills and competencies within the healthcare field; engage in critical reflection and sociopolitical processes to affect change; and increase health literacy within their family and communities.

Conclusions: CBPR values voice and agency within ethnic minority and immigrant communities that normally are excluded from research or innovative programming.   Considering the complex intersection of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic and immigrant status together with social and political forces within the backdrop of immigration and healthcare reform, the YHSC program model is a notable influence on individual and community-level resilience and a catalyst for social change.