Vicky Poh Hoay Khoo,1,2 Julie Morsillo,2 and Lei Zhang1,3,4,5,* 1China-Australia Joint Research C... more Vicky Poh Hoay Khoo,1,2 Julie Morsillo,2 and Lei Zhang1,3,4,5,* 1China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Centre, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China 2School of Arts and Social Sciences, Eastern College Australia, Melbourne, Australia 3Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia 4Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China *Correspondence: lei.zhang1@monash.eduhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100024 a 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, thi... more Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, this research used an appreciative inquiry approach incorporating action research principles. Year 10 school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects as part of a school subject, but with student control. Participants had previously reported a sense of alienation from their neighbourhoods and were in danger of disengaging from school. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore the... more The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore their hopes, celebrate their social identity and address their community concerns by creating participant designed and participant-led community-building and social action projects. The researcher worked in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne. An appreciative inquiry approach to action research was taken with three local youth groups who became active co-operative inquirers. The first group of 16 year old school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects in community arts, including: a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, a student battle of the bands, children's activities in a cultural festival for refugees and designing an Aboriginal public garden. The group of same-sex attracted youth in a social setting chose to address heterosexism in the local community by the workshops and performan...
Social action with youth is about youth having a SAY in the community. Young people can be empowe... more Social action with youth is about youth having a SAY in the community. Young people can be empowered to use their youthful passions to work as a group to improve their local community, and thereby improve their personal, relational and collective wellness.
Same-sex attracted youth want a homophobic free world.
Generation Q is a group of same-sex attra... more Same-sex attracted youth want a homophobic free world.
Generation Q is a group of same-sex attracted youth (SSAY) who have visions of a world without homophobia, free of rejection, trauma, and alienation. SSAY are often rejected by family, ostracized by peers, and called the ‘poofter’ or ‘dyke’ at school (Hillier et al., 1998; Ollis, Mitchell, Watson, Hillier, & Walsh, 2002). Safe places, refuges from their homophobic environment, are often sought in order to celebrate their sexuality, to celebrate the diversity of life (Wehbi, 2004).
These young people form subcultures where they can freely express themselves (White, 1993, 1999). Their subcultures can become niches of resistance (Moane, 2003), as they gather to tell tales of their lives and share their visions of a better life. (Miles, 2002; Pipher, 2002).
This article reports an action research project with a SSAY group that has found a place of emotional safety working with a trusted youth worker at Generation Q.
Youth can be empowered to use their passions, working with their peers, to make a positive contri... more Youth can be empowered to use their passions, working with their peers, to make a positive contribution to their local community. It is proposed that this social empowerment of young people can promote their personal and relational well-bein, while promoting the well-being of the community. Youth can be engage to express their own interests and beliefs in relation to their own community.
The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore the... more The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore their hopes, celebrate their social identity and address their community concerns by creating participant designed and participant-led community-building and social action projects. The researcher worked in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne. An appreciative inquiry approach to action research was taken with three local youth groups who became active co-operative inquirers. The first group of 16 year old school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects in community arts, including: a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, a student battle of the bands, children’s activities in a cultural festival for refugees and designing an Aboriginal public garden. The group of same-sex attracted youth in a social setting chose to address heterosexism in the local community by the workshops and performances of their own drama scenarios at a teachers’ forum on same-sex attracted friendly environments in schools. The third group, recently arrived refugee youth from the Horn of Africa in an educational bridging program, organised a celebratory day on their recent educational achievements with food, music and dancing. Participants reported alienation from their local neighbourhoods at the beginning of the research. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants in each group reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, thi... more Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, this research used an appreciative inquiry approach incorporating action research principles. Year 10 school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects as part of a school subject, but with student control. Participants had previously reported a sense of alienation from their neighbourhoods and were in danger of disengaging from school. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
Community participation and empowerment (book), 2009
The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. U... more The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. Using an appreciative approach, these inspiring young people eagerly shared their understandings of the best of their cultural heritage and together created a community project to celebrate new educational opportunities and mutual love of music and dance as they settled into their community within the multicultural city of Melbourne, Australia.
We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a... more We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a community service setting. The school intervention took place with a Year 10 class, while the community- based intervention took place with a group of same-sex attracted youth.Using a participatory action research framework, youth in both settings devised a series of community projects to promote personal, group, and community wellness. Projects included drama presentations addressing homophobia, designing an aboriginal public garden, children’s activities in a cultural festival for refugees, a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, and a student battle of the bands. We evaluated the various community projects using self-reports, videotapes,and ethnographic data. While goals of personal and group wellness were meaningfully met, wellness at the community level was harder to achieve.Introducing a tool for the evaluation of psychopolitical validity, we examined the degree of both epistemic and transformational validity present in the interventions. Our assessment indicates that (a) psychological changes are easier to achieve than political transformations,(b) epistemic validity is easier to accomplish than transformational validity, and (c) changes at the personal and group levels are easier to achieve than changes at the community level.
The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. U... more The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. Using an appreciative approach, these inspiring young people eagerly shared their understandings of the best of their cultural heritage and together created a community project to celebrate new educational opportunities and mutual love of music and dance as they settled into their community within the multicultural city of Melbourne, Australia. This paper will describe the creative processes used within this appreciative inquiry approach to assist this group of culturally diverse young people to celebrate their social identity and improve their sense of community. Appreciative inquiry is a positive, strength-based action research approach incorporating narrative inquiry principles that is well suited to working with culturally diverse communities. Appreciative inquiry basically uses a 4D approach to: 1. Discover - appreciate the best of what is 2. Dream - imagine what might be 3. Design - determine what should be 4. Destiny - create what will be Participants are empowered to share their own understandings of what they value as the best of their social and cultural identity, to then creatively imagine what might be and together design what they could do to improve their community.
Today, more than ever in the history of humankind, have vast communities of people found themselv... more Today, more than ever in the history of humankind, have vast communities of people found themselves traumatically displaced from their home country, needing seek refuge. These displaced traumatised communities of people, often due to violent racial and ethnic discrimination, find themselves looking for a safe place of welcome and acceptance, of refuge and sanctuary, where they can find comfort and solace, to feel safe and at home, among people who offer them respect and dignity. This article will briefly consider ways in which historically and currently, people who have been displaced from their communities of origin, seek ways to find places of sanctuary, including traditional sacred spaces and other public spaces that provide community and therapeutic services, to feel safe and to experience a sense of belonging, of community connectedness.
Vicky Poh Hoay Khoo,1,2 Julie Morsillo,2 and Lei Zhang1,3,4,5,* 1China-Australia Joint Research C... more Vicky Poh Hoay Khoo,1,2 Julie Morsillo,2 and Lei Zhang1,3,4,5,* 1China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Centre, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China 2School of Arts and Social Sciences, Eastern College Australia, Melbourne, Australia 3Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia 4Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China *Correspondence: lei.zhang1@monash.eduhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100024 a 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, thi... more Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, this research used an appreciative inquiry approach incorporating action research principles. Year 10 school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects as part of a school subject, but with student control. Participants had previously reported a sense of alienation from their neighbourhoods and were in danger of disengaging from school. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore the... more The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore their hopes, celebrate their social identity and address their community concerns by creating participant designed and participant-led community-building and social action projects. The researcher worked in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne. An appreciative inquiry approach to action research was taken with three local youth groups who became active co-operative inquirers. The first group of 16 year old school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects in community arts, including: a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, a student battle of the bands, children's activities in a cultural festival for refugees and designing an Aboriginal public garden. The group of same-sex attracted youth in a social setting chose to address heterosexism in the local community by the workshops and performan...
Social action with youth is about youth having a SAY in the community. Young people can be empowe... more Social action with youth is about youth having a SAY in the community. Young people can be empowered to use their youthful passions to work as a group to improve their local community, and thereby improve their personal, relational and collective wellness.
Same-sex attracted youth want a homophobic free world.
Generation Q is a group of same-sex attra... more Same-sex attracted youth want a homophobic free world.
Generation Q is a group of same-sex attracted youth (SSAY) who have visions of a world without homophobia, free of rejection, trauma, and alienation. SSAY are often rejected by family, ostracized by peers, and called the ‘poofter’ or ‘dyke’ at school (Hillier et al., 1998; Ollis, Mitchell, Watson, Hillier, & Walsh, 2002). Safe places, refuges from their homophobic environment, are often sought in order to celebrate their sexuality, to celebrate the diversity of life (Wehbi, 2004).
These young people form subcultures where they can freely express themselves (White, 1993, 1999). Their subcultures can become niches of resistance (Moane, 2003), as they gather to tell tales of their lives and share their visions of a better life. (Miles, 2002; Pipher, 2002).
This article reports an action research project with a SSAY group that has found a place of emotional safety working with a trusted youth worker at Generation Q.
Youth can be empowered to use their passions, working with their peers, to make a positive contri... more Youth can be empowered to use their passions, working with their peers, to make a positive contribution to their local community. It is proposed that this social empowerment of young people can promote their personal and relational well-bein, while promoting the well-being of the community. Youth can be engage to express their own interests and beliefs in relation to their own community.
The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore the... more The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore their hopes, celebrate their social identity and address their community concerns by creating participant designed and participant-led community-building and social action projects. The researcher worked in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne. An appreciative inquiry approach to action research was taken with three local youth groups who became active co-operative inquirers. The first group of 16 year old school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects in community arts, including: a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, a student battle of the bands, children’s activities in a cultural festival for refugees and designing an Aboriginal public garden. The group of same-sex attracted youth in a social setting chose to address heterosexism in the local community by the workshops and performances of their own drama scenarios at a teachers’ forum on same-sex attracted friendly environments in schools. The third group, recently arrived refugee youth from the Horn of Africa in an educational bridging program, organised a celebratory day on their recent educational achievements with food, music and dancing. Participants reported alienation from their local neighbourhoods at the beginning of the research. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants in each group reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, thi... more Working in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne, this research used an appreciative inquiry approach incorporating action research principles. Year 10 school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects as part of a school subject, but with student control. Participants had previously reported a sense of alienation from their neighbourhoods and were in danger of disengaging from school. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.
Community participation and empowerment (book), 2009
The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. U... more The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. Using an appreciative approach, these inspiring young people eagerly shared their understandings of the best of their cultural heritage and together created a community project to celebrate new educational opportunities and mutual love of music and dance as they settled into their community within the multicultural city of Melbourne, Australia.
We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a... more We describe two interventions designed to encourage community action with youth in a school and a community service setting. The school intervention took place with a Year 10 class, while the community- based intervention took place with a group of same-sex attracted youth.Using a participatory action research framework, youth in both settings devised a series of community projects to promote personal, group, and community wellness. Projects included drama presentations addressing homophobia, designing an aboriginal public garden, children’s activities in a cultural festival for refugees, a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, and a student battle of the bands. We evaluated the various community projects using self-reports, videotapes,and ethnographic data. While goals of personal and group wellness were meaningfully met, wellness at the community level was harder to achieve.Introducing a tool for the evaluation of psychopolitical validity, we examined the degree of both epistemic and transformational validity present in the interventions. Our assessment indicates that (a) psychological changes are easier to achieve than political transformations,(b) epistemic validity is easier to accomplish than transformational validity, and (c) changes at the personal and group levels are easier to achieve than changes at the community level.
The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. U... more The research involved migrant youth who were recently arrived refugees from the Horn of Africa. Using an appreciative approach, these inspiring young people eagerly shared their understandings of the best of their cultural heritage and together created a community project to celebrate new educational opportunities and mutual love of music and dance as they settled into their community within the multicultural city of Melbourne, Australia. This paper will describe the creative processes used within this appreciative inquiry approach to assist this group of culturally diverse young people to celebrate their social identity and improve their sense of community. Appreciative inquiry is a positive, strength-based action research approach incorporating narrative inquiry principles that is well suited to working with culturally diverse communities. Appreciative inquiry basically uses a 4D approach to: 1. Discover - appreciate the best of what is 2. Dream - imagine what might be 3. Design - determine what should be 4. Destiny - create what will be Participants are empowered to share their own understandings of what they value as the best of their social and cultural identity, to then creatively imagine what might be and together design what they could do to improve their community.
Today, more than ever in the history of humankind, have vast communities of people found themselv... more Today, more than ever in the history of humankind, have vast communities of people found themselves traumatically displaced from their home country, needing seek refuge. These displaced traumatised communities of people, often due to violent racial and ethnic discrimination, find themselves looking for a safe place of welcome and acceptance, of refuge and sanctuary, where they can find comfort and solace, to feel safe and at home, among people who offer them respect and dignity. This article will briefly consider ways in which historically and currently, people who have been displaced from their communities of origin, seek ways to find places of sanctuary, including traditional sacred spaces and other public spaces that provide community and therapeutic services, to feel safe and to experience a sense of belonging, of community connectedness.
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Generation Q is a group of same-sex attracted youth (SSAY) who have visions of a world without homophobia, free of rejection, trauma, and alienation. SSAY are often rejected by family, ostracized by peers, and called the ‘poofter’ or ‘dyke’ at school (Hillier et al., 1998; Ollis, Mitchell, Watson, Hillier, & Walsh, 2002). Safe places, refuges from their homophobic environment, are often sought in order to celebrate their sexuality, to celebrate the diversity of life (Wehbi, 2004).
These young people form subcultures where they can freely express themselves (White, 1993, 1999). Their subcultures can become niches of resistance (Moane, 2003), as they gather to tell tales of their lives and share their visions of a better life. (Miles, 2002; Pipher, 2002).
This article reports an action research project with a SSAY group that has found a place of emotional safety working with a trusted youth worker at Generation Q.
This article will briefly consider ways in which historically and currently, people who have been displaced from their communities of origin, seek ways to find places of sanctuary, including traditional sacred spaces and other public spaces that provide community and therapeutic services, to feel safe and to experience a sense of belonging, of community connectedness.
Generation Q is a group of same-sex attracted youth (SSAY) who have visions of a world without homophobia, free of rejection, trauma, and alienation. SSAY are often rejected by family, ostracized by peers, and called the ‘poofter’ or ‘dyke’ at school (Hillier et al., 1998; Ollis, Mitchell, Watson, Hillier, & Walsh, 2002). Safe places, refuges from their homophobic environment, are often sought in order to celebrate their sexuality, to celebrate the diversity of life (Wehbi, 2004).
These young people form subcultures where they can freely express themselves (White, 1993, 1999). Their subcultures can become niches of resistance (Moane, 2003), as they gather to tell tales of their lives and share their visions of a better life. (Miles, 2002; Pipher, 2002).
This article reports an action research project with a SSAY group that has found a place of emotional safety working with a trusted youth worker at Generation Q.
This article will briefly consider ways in which historically and currently, people who have been displaced from their communities of origin, seek ways to find places of sanctuary, including traditional sacred spaces and other public spaces that provide community and therapeutic services, to feel safe and to experience a sense of belonging, of community connectedness.