Methods: Youth and students met weekly from September 2016 to April 2017 with skilled group facilitators to build and apply skills in community organizing. Students worked with refugee and immigrant youth to 1) identify a community problem/need of concern to the youth, 2) conduct a community assessment, 3) analyze assessment data and prioritize problem statements, 4) create a plan to address the priority problem, 5) implement an intervention, and 6) evaluate the intervention. Youth and students led the assessment and organization of the community around the issue of bullying - addressing a root cause - cultural misunderstanding - through an evening of cultural celebration.
Results: Outcomes of the community organizing process included: increased visibility of the youth in the community, identification of additional community leaders, and enhanced student and youth confidence in their own agency since being a part of the group. The community organizing process led to the subsequent implementation of a second intervention by the youth targeting school principals.
Conclusion: The Youth Voices! Project can serve as a model for empowering, collaborative youth and student education for change in community-academic partnerships. Best practices/the cornerstones of public health nursing practice such as relationship development, collaboration, and social justice were demonstrated through this project.