Article
Community Collaborations with Saving Lives, Inspiring Youth: A Community-Based Cross-Age Peer Mentoring Program
The Community Psychologist
(2020)
Abstract
Scholar-community collaborations offer an opportunity to conduct translational research that is both useful and respectful to the population of study (Foster-Fishman, Berkowitz, Lounsbury, Jacobson & Allen, 2001). When projects involve an intervention targeted towards a marginalized community, it is even more important to perform the research with such regard. Community-based interventions are more likely to find sustained success with community members as part of the service and research team. However, tensions between researchers and practitioners may present challenges with this work (e.g., researchers devaluing practitioner insights, practitioners and community members concerned about past histories of mistreatment of research subjects), particularly in marginalized communities experiencing systemic oppression. This case study aims to recognize community collaborator challenges, contributing factors, and solutions from Saving Lives, Inspiring Youth (SLIY), a community-based participatory cross-age peer mentoring program based in the south and west sides of Chicago. Specifically, we present challenges navigating a partnership with our community collaborators at a SLIY mentoring site on the west side of Chicago in 2017.
Keywords
- mentoring,
- peer mentoring,
- chicago,
- community collaboration
Disciplines
Publication Date
Winter 2020
Citation Information
Katherine Tyson McCrea, Cynthia Onyeka, Kevin Miller, Chana Matthews, et al.. "Community Collaborations with Saving Lives, Inspiring Youth: A Community-Based Cross-Age Peer Mentoring Program" The Community Psychologist Vol. 53 Iss. 1 (2020) p. 22 - 25 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/katherine_mcrea/49/