Bay Area Youth Participatory Evaluation Project: Findings and Summary
A critical component of both AIR’s mission and our approach to the Neighborhood Opportunity & Accountability Board (NOAB) evaluation is ensuring that the perspectives of people who are impacted by our research inform our work. In this spirit, AIR is integrating two community-based research activities into the evaluation.
One of them is the Bay Area Youth Participatory Evaluation Project. For this project, AIR collaborated with Youth Participatory Evaluation (YPE) experts from Alliance for Girls, who guided a group of three young people affected by the justice system to support research on diversion programming. The goal was to find ways to further humanize young people's experiences and to build on restorative justice practices so that diversion programs can meet the needs of young people and their families. The three youth researchers shared their findings and recommendations to improve diversion programming in a final report.
I think we need to find a way to reward people for good behavior, because I feel like in our community, a lot of times the negative behavior is what gets rewarded.
- Focus Group Participant
The research question guiding the study was: What do youth with offenses and their families need from a diversion program to achieve restorative justice?
With support from AIR and Alliance for Girls, the research team conducted three focus groups with youth (ages 15 - 24) and their family members (ages 25 - 60).
During the focus groups, participants responded to questions about how they would want to change the system and what could have been different to create a more positive and effective environment for families, youth, and diversion programs.
Participants mentioned needing somebody to talk to (mental health support), community and connection, and rewards for positive behavior in diversion programs. They also frequently mentioned needing more programs with various activities, allowing for fun and connection with their community.
The youth researchers hope that, by affirming and centering the voices of young people and their families to fulfill restorative justice in diversion programs, we can look forward to a more just juvenile justice system beyond policing, coupled with community support and connection.
The Bay Area Youth Research Advisory Team
Swai Lakai
Swai has been doing community organizing for approximately 3 years. She has worked with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) as a Dream Beyond Bars fellow and currently works as a community office associate. She has also worked with many other organizations to impact her
community. Contact Swai
Xochtil Larios
Xochtil is a youth justice coordinator with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) located in Oakland, California. She is currently working with their policy department implementing policy passing bills at a state and local level, and working closely with their local Juvenile Justice Center. Contact Xochtil
Zouhair Mussa
Zouhair is Sudanese/Nubian-American community organizer and multi-disciplinary artist from West Oakland. His art is based on the life he has lived and aim to address that which is detrimental to him and his community. He seeks to shed light on injustices that plague the places he calls home. Contact Zouhair
