Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) - Talloires Network of Engaged Universities

YPAR Overview

Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a core component of For Youth, By Youth’s growing global movement. YPAR redefines traditional academic research by making community members co-creators, not just subjects. YPAR is hands-on, justice-driven, and rooted in real-world impact. It values local knowledge, cross-cultural understanding, and advances inclusive knowledge production. For Youth, By Youth YPAR Working Group members will develop a shared understanding of YPAR, its foundational principles and applications, gain a collective understanding of its supporters and critics, and craft a vision for its radical expansion throughout higher education internationally.

Global Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Webinar Series

Fall 2026: Weaving Knowledges: Youth-led Action for Resilient Communities and Livelihoods

The three-part series is designed to inspire youth, university students, university leaders, community partners, funding partners, and others to understand the benefits and challenges of Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a powerful and transformative approach to research and community engagement.

“Respectful, reciprocal, genuine relationships lie at the heart of the community life and community development” -Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples

The three-part series will explore how young people and communities co-generate, share, and apply knowledges (contextual, relational, technical, analytical) to address systemic challenges such as water and food insecurity, conflict and violence, and pervasive barriers to employment and entrepreneurship.

By intentionally blending diverse knowledge systems, the series addresses food security, environmental sustainability, agricultural innovation, and evolving labor markets. Centering youth agency across all three sessions, the series asks: what happens when different epistemologies meet, and how can higher education partnerships better support young people to weave these knowledge systems together to shape a rapidly changing world?

Save the Dates! Wednesdays in October and November, 10-11:30 AM (ET)

Knowledge in Relationship: University-Indigenous Community Partnerships in Canada | October 21st
Knowledge in Action: How Youth Leaders Transform African Communities | November 4th
Knowledge in Dialogue: Bridging Youth-led Community Action Across Africa and Canada | November 18th

Archive - Fall 2025: Global Webinar YPAR Series on Youth-led Climate Action

Fall 2025: YPAR and Youth-led Climate Action

The three-part series is designed to inspire students, university leaders, funders, and other partners to embrace Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a powerful and transformative research method. The webinars will be held on in October on Fridays from 9:00–10:30 AM (ET). Please find additional details and link to the session below:

Youth Power and Participatory Research | October 10^th – the opening session is a call to recognize youth not as future leaders, but as present-day change agents and researchers. Through compelling stories from climate-impacted regions, young leaders will share how YPAR enables them to investigate the environmental injustices in their communities and take collective action. This session celebrates youth wisdom and centers lived experience and makes the case for YPAR as essential to advancing climate justice. The opening panel will feature the following speakers to share their reflections and expertise: Dr. Fadia Nordtveit (Founder, BGreen Project, Professor, NYU Stern School of Business), Mahugnon Samuel Ahossouhe (Next Generation Leader Alumnus, Climate Impact Fellow, and Ph.D Candidate, Institut International d'Ingénierie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement), Claire McCann (Next Generation Leader Alumnus, and Phd Candidate, University of Oxford), Miguel Angel Castañeda Barahona (Researcher and Activist from Colombia, Alumnus of the Bard Center for Human Rights and the Arts). View the recording here.

Research for Climate Justice in Action | October 17^th – the second session explores how Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is being used to advance climate justice. The discussion will be centered on what becomes possible when youths are trusted as co-creators of climate solutions. We will focus on research design and methodology, as well as the challenges, and breakthroughs of the collaborative work. This session offers a living example of what’s possible when universities trust, resource, and uplift youth leadership in the climate space. The panel will feature the following university and community leaders: Dr. Nuhad Yazbik Dumit (Associate Professor of Nursing and Founding Director of SAIL for Change Cluster, American University of Beirut (AUB)), Aminah Nassali (President, Uganda Youth Coalition for SDGs), Elizabeth Rwabu (Inclusion and Support Services Officer, Mastercard Foundation at Makerere University), and Denis Ouma (Master's Student, University of Sussex and Disability Inclusion Consultant). View the recording here.

Investing in Youth Research for Climate Justice | October 24^th – the final session is a bold call to action for funders and institutions: if we are serious about equity, climate action, and sustainability, we must invest in youth-led, community-rooted research. This session elevates the voices of funders who are backing YPAR, along with youth researchers who have turned small grants into big impact. During the session, we will hear presentations on climate and environment-focused YPAR projects from For Youth, By Youth inaugural cohort members: Nyingilayefa Gift Ernest (University of Edinburgh), Deng Parmena Kuol (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), Adil Kome (University of Edinburgh), Maureen Wangui (University of Cape Town) and Cindy Wanyika Kilonzo (Ashesi University). View the recording here.

Additional For Youth, By Youth YPAR Resources