(WITHDRAWN) Community-Led Survey Research: The Experience of Conducting a Youth-Led Youth Count in New Hampshire

YOUth Counts have been implemented in communities throughout the country to count better and understand the youth and young adults (YYA) experiencing homelessness population. Traditionally community stakeholders have conducted these counts, without direct input from YYA. Additionally, the counts have shown mixed results in their ability to capture the true nature of YYA homelessness.

Currently in New Hampshire, community stakeholders and adult partners largely rely on a combination of raw data and anecdotal evidence from service providers to inform their responses to YYA homelessness. These methods have been unreliable: generally, YYA do not show up in the adult homeless serving system; this population does not match societal stereotypes of homelessness, and YYAs are adept at flying under the radar. In New Hampshire, there is not a clear understanding of how many YYA experience homelessness each year and the population's unique needs and experiences.

In the recent New Hampshire YOUth Count, 1,476 YYA were surveyed about their experiences with homelessness. The research team used elements of community-based participatory research methods to develop, implement, and analyze a 40-question survey. Community-based participatory research methods can be valuable when working with hard-to-reach populations, such as YYA experiencing homelessness. Using such methods can result in research findings that illuminate the issues and solutions important to the community, including those individuals experiencing the problem. Through the process, community members can be involved in defining, investigating, and solving the problem.

The results generated from the community-led YOUth Count provide invaluable information to providers and stakeholders working to address YYA homelessness across the state. When the issues at hand are well understood and the community is involved in the process, we can facilitate system level improvement from within. Thus far, providers and stakeholders in New Hampshire have been relying on incomplete data to inform their work. These data, collected through methods designed and implemented by community members, will contribute to an intentional and well-informed response to the problem of YYA homelessness.

This workshop will provide an overview of community-led survey research methods and show how these techniques were used in NH to gain a better understanding of the experiences of the YYA homelessness population. Early findings from these surveys will be shared. Participants in this workshop will work with the concepts on developing community-led research within their own research. Participants will explore common pitfalls of implementing community-led research and have a discussion on ways that these pitfalls can be mitigated, using experiences in New Hampshire as an example. Researchers will discuss the following topics: 1) the fundamentals of community-based participatory research, 2) ethical considerations when working with community leaders, 3) how to incorporate community-based participatory research methods into research projects, 4) lessons learned from New Hampshire's implementation of a statewide survey, 5) how to include marginalized communities into research projects, youth and young adults with lived experience of homelessness.