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In this proposal, we will create a multidisciplinary community-academic partnership to develop a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study with Latinx youth living in Pittsburgh, PA (or the surrounding region), which is an emerging (or new growth) Latinx immigrant community. Our team will use YPAR—an approach that centers youths’ voices in research by investigating and acting on issues that are of concern to youth and their families—to develop a Youth Research Action Collaborative. This Collaborative will include Latinx youth ages 14 to 18 with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Faculty will guide youth through creating and implementing research that aims to dismantle structural inequities, such as White supremacy, xenophobia, and language barriers. This “Teaming” grant includes community partners from the Latinx empowerment organization Casa San José, as well as a multidisciplinary team of faculty with backgrounds in psychology, social work, education, medicine, and public health. The goals of this proposal are threefold: 1) develop the Youth Research Action Collaborative with Latinx youth in Pittsburgh; 2) design and implement a research curriculum for youth leaders; and 3) conceptualize, implement, and analyze a pilot study using Photovoice to explore how structural racism impacts Latinx youth in Pittsburgh. Collaborations nurtured through this work, coupled with data from the YPAR project, will inform larger external grants to the National Institutes of Health and the WT Grant Foundation to develop a research program around addressing structural inequities experienced by Latinx youth in emerging Latinx communities.

The increased visibility of the Black Lives Matter Movement in response to countless murders of Black people, including but not limited to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and Ahmaud Arbery, underscores that the United States (U.S.) is a country plagued with anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and other manifestations of racism. The term BIPOC—Black, indigenous, and People of Color—has gained traction during the Black Lives Matter Movement to underscore the unique racialized experiences Black people and indigenous people have in the U.S. as a result of slavery and colonization (Grady, 2020). Latinx youth may be represented in all aspects of the BIPOC term, as these youth may identify or are racialized as Brown, Black, indigenous, amongst other minoritized races. As a diverse racial-ethnic group, there is a need to investigate the ways in which Latinx youth develop as anti-racists that challenge integrated systems of oppression, such as anti-Black racism and xenophobia, that negatively affect the Latinx community and other communities of color. Theoretical work suggests that youths' involvement in social justice efforts is informed by the conversations they have about race and racism with their parents (i.e., parental ethnic-racial socialization), youths' personal ethnic-racial identity, and their structural analysis of racism (Anyiwo et al., 2018; Mathews et al., 2019), although this work rarely consider how these processes might promote anti-racism development among Latinx youth. The proposed pilot study will investigate how 13-14-year-old Latinx youth in Chicago, Illinois develop as anti-racists through three aims: 1) To investigate associations between parental ethnic-racial socialization and youths’ anti-racism action; 2) To explore the extent to which parental ethnic-racial socialization is associated with youths’ ethnic-racial identity structural analysis of racism; and 3) to investigate the extent to which youths’ ethnic-racial identity and s

College going and completion is shown to provide substantial tangible (e.g., lifetime wages) and intangible (e.g., critical consciousness) benefits. Yet, Black youth often are excluded from opportunities to access college. For instance, in Pittsburgh, only 16% of Black students earn a college degree while 42% of White students earn a college degree. In response to higher education barriers, Justice Scholars Institute (JSI) was created for Black youth in Pittsburgh. JSI provides college-credit courses and various justice-oriented educational programming, including college preparatory workshops, out-of-school time justice-focused youth development opportunities, and training in justice-focused research. The proposed project uses critical theories and transformative approaches to (1) understand factors that impact Black students' college access opportunities; (2) examine the mechanisms that influence the success of students in JSI; (3) extend the research around designing justice-centered partnerships focused on post-secondary access for Black students; and (4) develop a justice-centered teacher leader collective to support college access opportunities for Black students. Findings from this study will provide greater insight into how educational leaders, universities, and community leaders can create liberatory conditions for Black youth to thrive as global citizens.

College going and completion is shown to provide substantial tangible (e.g., lifetime wages) and intangible (e.g., critical consciousness) benefits. Yet, Black youth often are excluded from opportunities to access college. For instance, in Pittsburgh, only 16% of Black students earn a college degree while 42% of White students earn a college degree. In response to higher education barriers, Justice Scholars Institute (JSI) was created for Black youth in Pittsburgh. JSI provides college-credit courses and various justice-oriented educational programming, including college preparatory workshops, out-of-school time justice-focused youth development opportunities, and training in justice-focused research. The proposed project uses critical theories and transformative approaches to (1) understand factors that impact Black students' college access opportunities; (2) examine the mechanisms that influence the success of students in JSI; (3) extend the research around designing justice-centered partnerships focused on post-secondary access for Black students; and (4) develop a justice-centered teacher leader collective to support college access opportunities for Black students. Findings from this study will provide greater insight into how educational leaders, universities, and community leaders can create liberatory conditions for Black youth to thrive as global citizens.

The increased visibility of the Black Lives Matter Movement in response to countless murders of Black people, including but not limited to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and Ahmaud Arbery, underscores that the United States (U.S.) is a country plagued with anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and other manifestations of racism. The term BIPOC—Black, indigenous, and People of Color—has gained traction during the Black Lives Matter Movement to underscore the unique racialized experiences Black people and indigenous people have in the U.S. as a result of slavery and colonization (Grady, 2020). Latinx youth may be represented in all aspects of the BIPOC term, as these youth may identify or are racialized as Brown, Black, indigenous, amongst other minoritized races. As a diverse racial-ethnic group, there is a need to investigate the ways in which Latinx youth develop as anti-racists that challenge integrated systems of oppression, such as anti-Black racism and xenophobia, that negatively affect the Latinx community and other communities of color. Theoretical work suggests that youths' involvement in social justice efforts is informed by the conversations they have about race and racism with their parents (i.e., parental ethnic-racial socialization), youths' personal ethnic-racial identity, and their structural analysis of racism (Anyiwo et al., 2018; Mathews et al., 2019), although this work rarely consider how these processes might promote anti-racism development among Latinx youth. The proposed pilot study will investigate how 13-14-year-old Latinx youth in Chicago, Illinois develop as anti-racists through three aims: 1) To investigate associations between parental ethnic-racial socialization and youths’ anti-racism action; 2) To explore the extent to which parental ethnic-racial socialization is associated with youths’ ethnic-racial identity structural analysis of racism; and 3) to investigate the extent to which youths’ ethnic-racial identity and s

In this proposal, we will create a multidisciplinary community-academic partnership to develop a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study with Latinx youth living in Pittsburgh, PA (or the surrounding region), which is an emerging (or new growth) Latinx immigrant community. Our team will use YPAR—an approach that centers youths’ voices in research by investigating and acting on issues that are of concern to youth and their families—to develop a Youth Research Action Collaborative. This Collaborative will include Latinx youth ages 14 to 18 with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Faculty will guide youth through creating and implementing research that aims to dismantle structural inequities, such as White supremacy, xenophobia, and language barriers. This “Teaming” grant includes community partners from the Latinx empowerment organization Casa San José, as well as a multidisciplinary team of faculty with backgrounds in psychology, social work, education, medicine, and public health. The goals of this proposal are threefold: 1) develop the Youth Research Action Collaborative with Latinx youth in Pittsburgh; 2) design and implement a research curriculum for youth leaders; and 3) conceptualize, implement, and analyze a pilot study using Photovoice to explore how structural racism impacts Latinx youth in Pittsburgh. Collaborations nurtured through this work, coupled with data from the YPAR project, will inform larger external grants to the National Institutes of Health and the WT Grant Foundation to develop a research program around addressing structural inequities experienced by Latinx youth in emerging Latinx communities.

The increased visibility of the Black Lives Matter Movement in response to countless murders of Black people, including but not limited to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and Ahmaud Arbery, underscores that the United States (U.S.) is a country plagued with anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and other manifestations of racism. The term BIPOC—Black, indigenous, and People of Color—has gained traction during the Black Lives Matter Movement to underscore the unique racialized experiences Black people and indigenous people have in the U.S. as a result of slavery and colonization (Grady, 2020). Latinx youth may be represented in all aspects of the BIPOC term, as these youth may identify or are racialized as Brown, Black, indigenous, amongst other minoritized races. As a diverse racial-ethnic group, there is a need to investigate the ways in which Latinx youth develop as anti-racists that challenge integrated systems of oppression, such as anti-Black racism and xenophobia, that negatively affect the Latinx community and other communities of color. Theoretical work suggests that youths' involvement in social justice efforts is informed by the conversations they have about race and racism with their parents (i.e., parental ethnic-racial socialization), youths' personal ethnic-racial identity, and their structural analysis of racism (Anyiwo et al., 2018; Mathews et al., 2019), although this work rarely consider how these processes might promote anti-racism development among Latinx youth. The proposed pilot study will investigate how 13-14-year-old Latinx youth in Chicago, Illinois develop as anti-racists through three aims: 1) To investigate associations between parental ethnic-racial socialization and youths’ anti-racism action; 2) To explore the extent to which parental ethnic-racial socialization is associated with youths’ ethnic-racial identity structural analysis of racism; and 3) to investigate the extent to which youths’ ethnic-racial identity and s

College going and completion is shown to provide substantial tangible (e.g., lifetime wages) and intangible (e.g., critical consciousness) benefits. Yet, Black youth often are excluded from opportunities to access college. For instance, in Pittsburgh, only 16% of Black students earn a college degree while 42% of White students earn a college degree. In response to higher education barriers, Justice Scholars Institute (JSI) was created for Black youth in Pittsburgh. JSI provides college-credit courses and various justice-oriented educational programming, including college preparatory workshops, out-of-school time justice-focused youth development opportunities, and training in justice-focused research. The proposed project uses critical theories and transformative approaches to (1) understand factors that impact Black students' college access opportunities; (2) examine the mechanisms that influence the success of students in JSI; (3) extend the research around designing justice-centered partnerships focused on post-secondary access for Black students; and (4) develop a justice-centered teacher leader collective to support college access opportunities for Black students. Findings from this study will provide greater insight into how educational leaders, universities, and community leaders can create liberatory conditions for Black youth to thrive as global citizens.