Moving from Theory to Practice: Exploring How One Community-Based Organization Develops Youth Changemakers for Health Equity

Community-based organizations are recognized as key stakeholders for public health, as their community expertise positions them to create tailored interventions to comprehensively address community needs that large-scale public health interventions may not address. The current study describes one youth-serving community-based non-profit’s approach to public health, where youth civic engagement is oriented by social justice coursework and integrated within youth participatory action research (YPAR) to engage youth in health equity efforts. The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) framework and the Socioecological Model (SEM) were applied to student research outputs to understand student conceptualization of social issues and the subsequent interventions they suggest. This work explores the feasibility and depth of student-created interventions within each SDOH domain, identifying common themes in students’ conceptualizations of social problems and interventions to promote health equity. Suggestions for integrating SDOH frameworks into the YPAR curriculum to scaffold youth projects, identifying root causes of health disparities, and developing practical community-based solutions are provided.