Amsden, J., & VanWynsberghe, R. (2005). Community mapping as a research tool with youth. Action Research, 3(4), 357-381.
Key Words: Youth engagement, knowledge
This article reviews the Environmental Youth Alliance’s Youth Friendly Heath Services project (YFHS) which engaged youth through community asset mapping, a participatory action research tool, to evaluate youth friendly health services. The article outlines the challenges faced in effectively utilizing data collected during the asset mapping process. The article demonstrates that innovative participatory processes do not necessarily equal rigorous research and usable policy outcomes. Larger questions of what the participatory and action component of the project should be were asked. Questions arise about maintaining youth involvement throughout the process and how to plan for and effect policy change. Implications of the article are the need to review the participatory and “action” components of PAR. The author found that instead of trying to create an output through a survey of health services, the action that should have been focused on the continued reflection of the youth, and expanding that to include health services providers, which the author felt would have better effected change.
