Research Essay on A Youth Empowerment Program (Youth ECHO)

A Youth Empowerment Research Program

A youth empowerment program, known as Youth ECHO, began in the fall of 2007 in the Red Hook public housing community of Brooklyn, New York. The program was designed to reduce the positive perceptions among youth of crime and to empower them to become involved in their communities to reduce youth crime and improve their community. Research was conducted to determine the impact of the program on the youth who were involved. Because of the applied nature of the research that was conducted and the involvement of teenagers in the research, ethical, political, and procedure issues arose in the methodology that was used to conduct the investigation. The purpose of this brief analysis is to examine five ethical, political, or procedures challenges that were faced, and whether they were addressed in a way that would make them effective in improving the research design for the second year of the investigation.

Procedural Challenges Faced in the Research

One of the first issues that was faced by the researchers was in the recruitment of teenagers who would be actively engaged in the program, as well as actively engaged in the interviews to explain what they had learned and how their perceptions of youth crime had changed. The researchers noted that they did not adequately plan for how to recruit participants beyond seeking out teenagers who wanted to take part in the program. Unfortunately, the researchers do not provide specific information about how they addressed this program. Based on the information provided, it seemed as though they planned to place limits on the teenagers who would be involved based on learning disabilities and maturity level. The problem, however, is that no specific information was provided about how such criteria would be determined, such as using grades in school, giving a preliminary assessment, or through interviews. More specific guidelines for determining eligibility should have been discussed.

Next, the researchers stated that the interview process that was initially used further added to the lack of participation by some of the participants because the interviews were often conducted after group interactions and classes occurred. The researchers stated that in the second cohort of the program, they planned to conduct the interviews or group discussions immediately after the classes or interactions. This change is likely to be effective because the outcomes of those classes and interactions will be fresh in their minds. In addition, the researchers will be able to better measure what it is that they are attempting to measure, which is the effect of the various elements of the program.

A third important change to the program was the timeframe in which the sessions would be conducted. In the first cohort, the sessions ran from March through the summer months. The program that arose was that once school was no longer in session for the summer, most of the participants had jobs that prevented them from showing up to the sessions. For the second cohort, the sessions were going to be conducted inline with the school calendar. Because the participants are students, conducting the program in relation to the school calendar is likely to result in greater participation because they will be available and will also have the mindset to be involved with their peers as opposed to solely focusing on their personal lives and their jobs.

The forth issue that was found during the first cohort was that many of the important classes related to the program, such as marketing, were conducting near the end of the experience. Because of conducting the classes near the end of the program, the participants were not able to use the knowledge they gained for the program activities. In the second cohort, the researchers planned to conduct the classes and training sessions at the beginning of the program so that the knowledge that was gained could be used in actual practice. This change is likely to be effective because the participants can gain information about marketing, team building, and leadership, and then actually use that information as part of the program. Furthermore, from a research standpoint, this change will also mean that the researchers will be measuring the outcomes of such learning, which will increase the validity of the findings.

Finally, the first cohort was asked to identify peers to take part in a survey as a way of assessing the influence of the participants. While there were initially many peers of the participants that completed surveys, the involvement of those peers dropped off significantly for subsequent surveys. In this regard, the researches hypothesized that peer influence was actually not that great, and was often changing. The researchers stated that they would not conduct the peer influence measure of the research for the second cohort, and would investigate other ways in which to measure this for the third cohort. Until a valid means of measuring peer influence can be found, ending this part of the investigation is appropriate because any findings from the peer surveys would lack validity and reliability.

Conclusion

The ethical, political, and procedural challenges that have been identified in relation to the Youth ECHO program are important because for the first cohort, they impacted the validity and reliability of the findings. The changes that have been made by the researchers in relation to the challenges that have been identified seemed appropriate in order to continue the research in a way that would provide meaningful results about the impact of the program. However, more consideration is needed about how participants will be recruited and how the issue of peer influence will be measured.

References

Remler, D. K. & Van Ryzin, G. G. Research Methods in Practice: Strategies for Description and Causation. London: Sage.

Swaner, R. & White, E. A Pilot Program on Youth Engagement. New York: Center for Court Intervention.