Youth as Researchers

The Youth as Researchers (YAR) initiative is designed to amplify grassroots youth voices to inform policy, practice and research agendas at the local and national levels.

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The initiative builds the capacity of young people to undertake youth-led participatory action research projects to build an evidence base to advocate for social change. It is unique in creating the space to gather youth insights; positioning young people as co-creators of knowledge that is relevant to their lives, the problems they face and the solutions that work best for them.

From Grassroots Research to Global Reach

The YAR initiative was founded in 2014 by the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement in University of Galway. It is implemented in Ireland in partnership with Foróige, an Irish Youth Development Organisation, and internationally in partnership with the UNESCO Chair on Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Peace through Youth and Community Engagement at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States of America.

Between 2020-2022, the UNESCO Chairs partnered with UNESCO’s Youth Section to expand the initiative on a global scale, launching the ‘Covid-19 Youth as Researchers’ programme with the goal of informing UNESCO’s response to supporting youth during COVID-19 pandemic. This programme engaged 270 young people, from over 70 countries, organised into 32 youth-led research teams across different regions. UNESCO now implements the programme worldwide through its field offices, tailoring its delivery to national and local contexts.

How it Works?

All participants in a YAR Programme receive age-appropriate skills-based research training, available both online and in-person. The training provides a step-by-step guide on how to implement a youth-led social research project, covering the different stages from design through to analysis and dissemination. It has been adapted and delivered to young people across the ages of 14-35 and in different cultural and geographical contexts.

Young people work in youth-led research teams (of approximately 6-10 people in each team) to design and deliver the research project. A research coordinator is appointed to mentor the participants and coordinate the research process. The work of the research coordinator is guided by a technical toolkit.

To support the YAR participants to act on their research findings and advocate for change, YAR facilitates its participants to produce a range of outputs to capture their research findings, including in video format, factsheets and policy briefs. It also seeks to create a space for youth to engage with policymakers and those with the power to effect change by disseminating their findings through the media, dialogue and public events.

In the aftermath of the ‘Covid-19 Youth as Researchers’ programme, a knowledge sharing meeting was organised where the international YAR teams were provided with the opportunity to discuss their research findings with technical experts and academics in the field of research. This was followed by a high-level policy conference which created the space for the YAR teams to communicate their findings to policymakers (ministers of youth, sectoral ministers and equivalent). Further information is available here.

Cillian Murphy and Youth as Researchers

YAR has the support of acclaimed Irish actor and patron of the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, Cillian Murphy in the delivery of the Initiative. You can learn more about the YAR initiative and Cillian Murphy’s support for it in in the video below.