Defining Youth Success Using Culturally Appropriate Community-based Participatory Research Methods

Abstract

This article reports on the development of a culturally grounded method for measuring outcomes and demonstrating the effectiveness of culturally specific services for Native American youth. This method was developed out of a community-based participatory research project involving Native elders, families, youth, and community partners, as well as the board, staff, and management of an agency serving an urban American Indian community. Through a series of focus groups, community members defined success for Native youth. Responses were analyzed using the four quadrants of the Relational Worldview model (Cross, 1995), an indigenous way of understanding life from a concept of wholeness and balance as a framework. This article describes the use of focus groups in this context and the cultural adaptations necessary both in conducting the groups and in the analysis of the data. Focus group results and next steps in the development of a practice-based approach to demonstrating the effectiveness of culturally specific services are summarized. Findings illustrate the need to broaden definitions of success used to guide the development and evaluation of effective services beyond those usually used to identify evidence-based practices, as well as the importance attached to Native youth gaining spiritual understanding and knowledge and skills in traditional cultural practices as essential elements of achieving community-defined outcomes.