Community action research and empowerment; A youth led comprehensive approach to improving community health

Globally, millions of immigrants and refugees receive inappropriate or inadequate services due to cultural and linguistic barriers and lack of comprehensive approaches to address long-term needs. In Seattle, Vietnamese-Americans are among the largest refugee communities. Yet 72% of Vietnamese students are on free or reduced lunch and 42% passed the 10th grade standardized science test. In 2009, the Community Action Research and Empowerment Project (CARE) began engaging Seattle's Vietnamese-Americans in a community-led project for comprehensive and long-term improvement. CARE trained 26 Vietnamese-American youths in community research, engagement and planning. Guided by a community advisory committee, the youth developed research tools, collected and analyzed data from 16 focus groups, 2 community forums, 85 community interviews, and 316 surveys. Six key themes emerged: Youth and education, civic engagement, community safety, housing, jobs and economic stability, and health and social services, all of which impacting the health of the community and its members. Youth shared findings at two community planning sessions, participated by over 200 community members, to build long-term visions and strategies from which they developed issue-specific action plans. The youth are now organizing community stakeholders to implement the plans. CARE follows an inclusive process that puts the community at the center, driving decisions from designing, to planning, to implementation. Through CARE youth are building skills to be future leaders who will take comprehensive approaches to improve the health of the community while creating community ownership, deepening project impact, and ensuring the sustainability of its results. This process can be replicated world-wide.