Youth visions in a changing climate: Emerging lessons from using immersive and arts-based methods for strengthening community-engaged research with urban youth

Participatory research approaches can engage urban youth in working towards ecological resilienceYouth’s perspectives of ecological challenges are rarely incorporated into decision-making processes. Youth living in underserved communities face further barriers, including limited access to information on environmental change and complex social injustices. This participatory action research project, with aims for “democratizing research,” explored how experiential learning that integrated science and the arts engaged young adults in environmental issues.

A participatory action research approach was used to examine how arts-based methods can be utilized with urban youth (18–30 years old) to develop understandings of environmental concerns in Cape Town, South Africa. A total of more than 50 youth from a range of neighborhoods co-designed and/or participated in various phases of the study. A series of three workshops that involved a beach clean-up, an estuary clean-up, and a studio painting session were available to youth. The original plan to conclude the project by painting a participatory mural in a public space was not achievable due to challenges with permitting. The workshops offered hands-on experiences with environmental problems to initiate group conversation focused on plastic pollution, climate change, public art, and historical injustices. Youth were also engaged in the creation of informative workbooks that explored these environmental issues and were used by youth to document their experiences. Recordings and notes from project team reflections were the main data source.

Participation in the workshops increased awareness of environmental problems and cultivated a stronger sense of community responsibility and agency among youth. Collaborative art-making (weaving plastic litter into a rug) facilitated connection between youth and allowed conversation on environmental issues to naturally emerge. Overall, youth were more engaged in more informal conversations than facilitated workshop discussions that adhered to the traditional model of facilitator and participant roles. Discussions led by young climate-activists from local organizations who shared personal experiences with climate change-induced problems were even more engaging and helped youth deepen their understanding of the local impacts and social justice dimensions of climate change. Youth reported that learning about climate issues from people who "looked and acted ‘like us’” was highly impactful. Findings also challenged the deficit view of youth from marginalized communities regarding environmental problems. The workshops demonstrated that youth are already equipped with the capacities to respond to environmental issues. The authors argue for the “elevation of youth voices and youth empowerment through mobilization of existing capacities in communities to communicate the urgency of climate action.” The workshops also highlighted the need for facilitators to deepen their understanding of the issues framing youth’s daily lives that make it difficult for them to imagine a different future for themselves or their communities. Environmental programming needs to consider where youth “are ‘at’ and what collective and individual traumas they are often processing.”

The study shows how participatory research can be a shared process with urban youth that elevates their voices, builds community, and enables “healing, co-learning and creativity.” Through participatory approaches, urban youth can play a central role in working towards social and ecological resilience.