Youth-community-university partnerships and sense of place: two case studies of youth participatory action research

This paper describes two youth participatory action research initiatives undertaken in East Palo Alto, CA, USA, as part of university-community partnerships. We discuss the process of engaging youth researchers to build youth skills, facilitate relationships with community-based organizations, and enhance study integrity. We report interview and artifact data that address: (1) how the youths' involvement in the research process affected their sense of place and self-efficacy for creating community change; (2) how the youths' interactions with adult community leaders shifted adult perceptions of youths' abilities and roles in the community; and (3) how the initiatives affected youth and adult participants' perspectives of the university.