YouCreate: Youth-led Arts-based Participatory Action Research for Wellbeing and Social Change

Youth-led Arts-based Participatory Action Research for Wellbeing and Social Change 

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Welcome to the YouCreate E-modules! This series of videos will walk you through a basic introduction of an innovative youth-led arts-based Participatory Action Research Project (PAR), YouCreate.

YouCreate is an initiative of Terre des hommes, and was designed and carried out in partnership with the International Institute for Child Rights and Development. YouCreate is a PAR Project aimed to train youth leaders, with the support of Adult Allies and the ‘Art-kit’ (training manual), to lead their peers in implementing participatory arts-based research projects and ‘Art Actions’ - arts-based activities designed to address issues of significance to youth in their community. Youth are trained to map and explore significant community issues and challenges and to collaboratively select challenges to address in their communities through design and implementation of ‘Art Actions’. 

With the objectives of strengthening wellbeing, resilience, and leadership among youth, YouCreate has been positively impacting youth. YouCreate is being carried out in Iraq and Egypt and is expanding to other countries and regions. In these areas: Youth’s sense of purpose and hope is growing; Youth are experiencing self-discovery and finding new ways to express themselves; Youth are gaining social respect and learning to live together and to build inclusive communities; and Youth are developing artistic and life skills. This PAR project has been breaking down barriers between youth, their families and communities who are coming together with a common purpose of strengthening wellbeing through the arts.

This series of 6 E-modules will provide you with a basic introduction to the YouCreate PAR process. The PAR process consists of five cyclical phases:

  1. Map: Youth leaders and their Adult Allies use arts-based activities to map out a baseline for their project, to set our roles and to create a vision.  
  2. Explore: Youth leaders lead their peers through a series of art-based activities to explore their wellbeing and involvement in their communities and the arts.
  3. Plan: Youth leaders guide their peers to confirm and adjust the findings. They select a specific challenge to address, analyze root causes, and develop an arts-based project to address it.
  4. Art-Action: Youth implement, monitor and evaluate their arts-based project with the support of youth leaders and adult allies.
  5. Reflect & Share: Youth leaders guide youth to reflect on any changes that have occurred as a result of YouCreate.

We invite you to join us in this E-module series, to learn about the YouCreate PAR process, as dramatized by youth members in the YouCreate team, and explore how it might work for you. 

 To complete the course a participant must:

Upon completion, each participant will receive a Certificate from Terre des hommes and International Institute for Child Rights and Development, recognizing their completion of this introductory PAR course: ‘YouCreate: Youth-led Arts-based Participatory Action Research for Wellbeing and Social Change’.