Meaningful Youth Cabs

The purpose of this station is to assist researchers in setting up advisory boards that promote meaningful and effective inclusion of the adolescents and youth. A strong representation of young people in community advisory boards gives voice to the adolescents and enables them to provide advice on various health issues that affect them such as HIV risk factors, HIV infection prevention mechanisms that appeal to young people, substance use and mental health.

Youth Community Advisory Boards (Youth CABs) should be established and members should be recruited and trained in preparation for their leadership and advisory roles as early as possible in the research. Members of the Youth CAB have a wide scope of responsibilities that include providing input into the study design, protocols, recruitment and enrolment of adolescents into research projects and being ambassadors for the health and research institutions that enlist their services.

Characteristics of young people that are suitable to be members of the advisory board:

Is the young person excited about the research topic and the idea of serving in the board? As ambassadors, Youth CAB members have to talk about the research in the community and promote participation in the research and health programme.
Does the young person have a people-oriented personality? Youth CAB members play a key role in recruiting and promoting commitment to the research process.
Communication Skills. Youth CABs have to raise awareness about the research in the community and contribute in decision making by sharing information that is crucial to the success of the research.

Recruitment and training of the Youth CAB members:

Young people that are enthusiastic to participate may not have the relevant leadership skills to steer the board into the right direction, and as such the research processes need to factor this issue into the training needs.

Meaningful involvement of the youth in the advisory board:

There can be an overlap between supporting the young people to take up their leadership role and allowing them to be the leaders.

Setting up meaningful youth community advisory boards is an essential step in the inclusion of young people in research and making sure that the voice of the young people is fairly represented. This step needs a careful consideration of processes to follow that do not compromise the integrity of the research, minimise the importance of the role of the youth and also balance the adult-youth power in decision making and implementation of the research.

Benefits for the research process:

Youth CABs provide youth insights on research design, implementation and evaluation
They help define outcomes that are relevant to the needs of the young people that participate in research and those that are intended beneficiaries
Youth engagement deepens the understanding of research strategies for the target audience

Youth CABs contribute to sustainability and scaling up of health research and interventions

Benefits for the adolescents and youth:

The Generation On organisation has established that young people that participate in youth led advisory boards develop an increased sense of creativity and confidence. They also gain valuable knowledge and skills such as:

Teamwork and cooperation
Conflict resolution
Communication, public speaking and negotiation skills

Researchers that were involved in the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative ⁱ(2010) reported that it was better to recruit and involve community advisory boards when protocols are set up, and keep the board active through to the end of the research process. In setting up advisory boards attention should be given to the local settings and dynamics. The research process needs to be mindful of political processes of the time, such as local elections occurring during the recruitment process as these may overlap and or create unwelcomed confusion. The school and college calendar play a role in recruiting youth that is in school or college. Young people’s interest to participate may be influenced by mental stress associated with preparing for the examinations and or the transition to the next level in their career path. Such timing considerations need to be factored in when planning the Youth CAB roles and responsibilities within the research.

How to:

The Guide United in Drug Education (GUIDE, Inc.) provides guidance on how to set up youth led community advisory boards:

Integrate the opinions of young people into research: Observing research protocols might limit the incorporation of the opinions of the young people who may periodically bring different views on how to enhance research.
Clarify expectations: In order to fulfil their leadership and advisory role, the young people need clear and consistent guidance on what is expected of them. At the beginning of the research process clarify the expectations and the reasons behind the expectations.
Give the youth an opportunity to lead: The main leadership roles must be assigned to young people and allow older persons such as the research staff to take up support and mentorship roles. To keep the Youth CAB focused on research protocols, the researchers must remain in the board to offer guidance and support.
Assign meaningful roles and responsibilities: Allow young people to plan, conduct research and participate in fund raising activities.

Other things to consider:

Ensure that Youth CAB participation is mutually beneficial to the youth and the research
Ensure that the process is sincere and true to the inclusion of adolescents and young people
Put aside enough time to recruit and develop leadership skills, public speaking and any other skills that will enhance their participation in the advisory boards
Ensure that the voices of the youth are incorporated (like the disabled and YKPs)
Diversify the recruitment platforms and process (make use of social media and other non-traditional recruitment platforms that have youth visibility)

The Johns Hopkins Centre for Adolescent Health (JHCAH) notes the growing trend of involving young people in health research and their significant contribution in applied research. However, this growth is not paralleled by the development of evidence-based theoretical models on how to establish and maintain Youth CAB and as such JHCAH has developed a Youth Development Framework for working with adolescents and youth in health research that:

Supports adult-youth relationships
Supports the youth as a resource
Increases youth participation
Supports programme flexibility to embrace the changing and growing needs of young people

Another useful resource in establishing and maintaining Youth CABs is the Game Changer’s Youth Advisory Toolkit which covers a range of topics from recruitment of suitable members, the training of new members, assigning roles and supporting the young people through their governance period.

Youth-Power recommends the use of a positive youth development approach in establishing youth led advisory boards, and further support their tested step by step process:

Step 1: Clearly define the role of the Youth CAB in research and health programme
Step 2: Define the purpose and the serving term of the Youth CAB.
Step 3: An ideal Youth CAB is composed of a gender sensitive and balanced group, has a fair representation of the adolescent age group being researched and is inclusive of social aspects like the education level of the youth, their skills and expertise and the lived experiences (like drug use, teenage pregnancies, living with HIV) relevant to the research
Step 4: To obtain a Youth CAB that is ideal start with a recruitment plan and committee that supports a representative, authentic, diverse and capable team.
Step 5: Youth CAB need to be trained and mentored into their new role
Step 6: Youth CAB must develop their code of conduct
Step 7: Youth CABs need to hold regular, and structured meetings which incorporate core youth engagement practices.
Step 8: The activities of the Youth CAB need to be monitored and evaluated periodically to ensure that they remain aligned to the research goals.

BY YOLISWA NTSEPE (MA, PhD)
ADOLESCENT PROGRAMMES MANAGER

UPDATED NOV 22, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

REFERENCES & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

USAID (2020) Youth Advisory Councils: Eight Steps to Consider Before You Engage
https://www.youthpower.org/resources/youth-advisory-councils-eight-steps-consider-you-engage