Promoting youth advocacy for resilience to disasters: a pilot study
Overview
Through Youth Advocacy for Resilience to Disasters (YARDs), we offer a case study of a middle-school science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) programme to engage youth in disaster resilience planning through mapmaking and advocacy. From 2021 to 2023, we designed and implemented a 14-session curriculum that empowers middle-school youth (ages 11–14) to advocate for infrastructural improvements that can benefit their communities by learning about disaster resilience from the perspective of environmental justice and equity. Youth explore virtual mapmaking and data visualisation to understand the assets and vulnerabilities in their communities related to disasters. Finally, they develop an action plan and present their plan to local civic and government leaders to advocate for change. This curriculum was piloted as an after-school programme in the fall of 2022 and twice as a summer camp in 2022 and 2023. Results from student surveys, field note observations, and focus groups show that there was increased self-efficacy among the participants for advocacy behaviours related to natural disasters and an increase in their understanding of and feelings of importance of the programme topics. This article can help inform others working with youth on successes and challenges with programme development around disaster resilience.
Additional details
Publisher(s)
Editor(s)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2024.2415224ISBN
1364-9221How to cite this resource
Citation styles vary so we recommend you check what is appropriate for your context. You may choose to cite Oxfam resources as follows:
Author(s)/Editor(s). (Year of publication). Title and sub-title. Place of publication: name of publisher. DOI (where available). URL
Our FAQs page has some examples of this approach.
