One of the challenges that often comes up in any new project is determining who gets a seat at the table to define the problem that the project is trying to resolve. Oftentimes it’s people who are established ‘authorities’ on the subject and they’ll tell you what is wrong with some group of people and how to solve the ‘problem’. This has created problems historically as people were researched on, their realities constructed by outsiders, and inappropriate solutions imposed on them. (Not to completely dismiss the notion of experts of course - expertise is invaluable in lots of ways).
Consumer advocacy has been a revitalizing force in mental health communities, redefining norms and challenging service providers to be responsive to the service users and the priorities they identify and articulate themselves. This model is becoming increasingly relevant in other sectors where the oppressed or marginalized are mobilizing themselves to be advocates for their own needs, conducting research and priority setting amongst themselves rather than having them imposed by someone else.
Fortunately for us there has been a real resurgence in the use of community-based or action research in the last ten to fifteen years, and there are thus many models to employ in trying to work in solidarity and collaboration with marginalized populations, which newcomer youth often are. By allowing the population that we want to work with to define the problems, to set the direction of the project and inform its process from beginning to end, we give back to them much of the power to support each other and themselves.
We’re hoping to be working with one of Canada’s foremost authorities on youth and community based research to train our leaders and other volunteers in the newcomer youth community to make them all effective participants in the project, which is very exciting for everyone involved. We’ll try and document that process here so that you can follow along and maybe we can all do some learning together.
These projects began in this way with community conversations amongst newcomer youth in Toronto last summer. We met and brainstormed, throwing out all of the barriers and challenges we could think of, and then breaking them down to some of the key issues that create them. The lack of clear information specifically written for youth, as well as a need for improved services in community agencies were two of the clearest priorities that we could fairly easily act on at OCASI. There are many others and you’ll continue to see work on them as we move forward as a community and network.
