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First tip: Remember that it is not a one way solution. Supporting enabling environments of a young person, protecting them against stressors, and alleviating the impacts of crisis. Focusing only on projects that target the health of youth is not enough. Empowering youth assets, agency, and contribution makes the process more sustainable.
Second tip: Increase education on soft skills. Skills or strategies to manage shocks and stressors can be very helpful in healthy youth behaviors. These skills and strategies (e.g., problem solving) are delivered through structured counseling or training sessions. Involving parents or caregivers in the implementation of programs strengthens youth resilience.
Third tip: Build youth individual resilience. Efforts to leverage community resilience should be built to ensure enhanced youth capacity. If a young person struggles with their personal resilience it becomes challenging to contribute to the overall resilience of their community. Developing coping skills and practicing stress management activities can be a good place to start building individual resilience.
Fourth tip: Place youth at the center of decision-making tables. Youth engagement needs to be contextually and culturally specific so that youth can serve as active leaders in their health and have a voice in how they would like to engage. Engaging only a few youth voices does not represent youth from different socio-cultural backgrounds and contexts. Also, enabling youth to sit at decision-making tables strengthens positive health behaviors.
Fifth tip: Expand youth-led research. Limited youth-participatory or youth-inclusive community resilience programs exist within the health sector. The community resilience literature is dominated by disaster management subjects, whereas the health sector is only beginning to develop programs that have a youth community resilience focus.
Sixth tip: Promote approaches beyond Western models. Western-based theories and models dominate the majority of youth community resilience theoretical models. Resilience models from local communities would build indigenous problem-solving mechanisms that address local issues.
Supporting and promoting research that develops locally grown models brings more light into youth health issues in local contexts.
Notes: These tips were written based on the findings of the "Evidence-Based Community Resilience Interventions to Promote Health Outcomes and Health-Seeking Behaviors among Adolescents and Young Adults" study. If you are interested in finding out more about this study, you can find the link here. For public inquiries and additional information, please email: info@youthpower.org