Civic Engagement In the Digital Age: Youth Leadership In Health Communications

Background: The issue of teen dating violence is well known across the country and more research is being conducted on various levels to stem the rising tide of TDV among youth.  In 2009 Youth Radio took on a California statewide TDV prevention campagin that was predicated on youth leadership and media content creation.  This effort, The Boss of Me or BOM Campaign,  helped to shape the pathway for peer-to-peer leadership and communication in health communications efforts within Youth Radio and other programs throughout the country.

Program background: From the learnings of this early peer-to-peer health communciations effort, Youth Radio has developed a model for authentic youth leadership and engagement in health communications to support transformative health at the individual, community and policy levels.

Evaluation Methods and Results: The BOM Campaign was evaluated using multiple methodologies:  content monitoring, user engagement monitoring, web-based surveys, key informant interviews, intercept inteviews at community events, and strategic document reviews. This research demonstrated that authentic youth created content and youth-to-youth engagement both on and off-line were key elements to sustained user engagement. In addition, this evaluation determined that engaging in the process of media creation with aim of serving communities yielded personal transformation for those yotuh.

Conclusions: The resarch and learning from the BOM Campaign helped to develop organizational processes and methods for strengthening youth-to-youth health communications efforts, leadership development and workforce readiness for youth.

Implications for research and/or practice: This poster presentation is designed to share these lessons from the field and encourage organizations to adopt best practices for authentic youth messaging and yotuh development practice.