Explore connects researchers and young people on research projects
If you’re undertaking research relating to the experiences of multicultural young people from refugee or migrant backgrounds, our Youth Researchers can help.
Through their lived experience and training, CMY’s Youth Researchers are actively contributing their insight and perspective to research projects across Victoria.
To us, this means working in partnership with those who are creating new knowledge and documenting evidence.
Equally, it means collaborating with and supporting the efforts of young people and communities to inform this evidence and influence how knowledge is created and value.
What do Youth Researchers do?
Explore youth researchers have training in facilitation, research and co-design skills and knowledge, and have been introduced to a range of tools that promote youth participation in research, consultation and evaluation.
They can support research projects in various roles, including:
- As co-researchers
- As facilitators
- As data analysts
- As evaluators
Explore youth researchers can be engaged at any stage of the research process, including:
- Workshopping themes, topics or scope of research.
- Design, co-design or consultation on research methods.
- Facilitation or co-facilitation of focus groups and interviews, dissemination of surveys and participant recruitment and engagement.
- Analysing data, reviewing research tools, translating findings.
- Program Evaluation.
Who is Explore for?
The Explore youth researchers are a team of young people from wide-ranging cultural, academic, and community backgrounds with training in research, facilitation, leadership and a drive to push the standards of youth engagement in research.
Their experience and training allow them to participate in research projects with:
- Not-for-profit sector
- Research institutions
- Universities
- Government
Why Explore
Explore is designed for research projects that wish to involve young people in roles that go beyond advisors, co-designers or informants.
Along with creating an opportunity for young people to meaningfully engage in research, Explore also supports researchers to work in partnership with young people to co-produce knowledge and embrace new perspectives.
Explore Resources
Toolkit for Researchers
A toolkit for researchers who wish to meaningfully engage young people as co-researchers to explore and solve real world problems, together.
Toolkit for Youth
Developed by CRIS, this toolkit will support and guide you in the early stages of your research journey. While the focus is on social research, there’s plenty of helpful information for other areas of research.
More information for researchers
This toolkit is designed to empower researchers looking to engage young individuals as co-researchers in tackling real-world issues. It provides valuable guidance, practical advice, and tools for fostering collaborative partnerships between researchers and youth.
While primarily drawing from the experiences of those in social and cultural youth studies, these resources can be applied across various research domains.
The resources in this toolkit were developed by researchers (including youth researchers) at the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth.
The toolkit resources were informed by the collective learnings of:
- researchers who have worked with youth researchers in co-research projects at the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies;
- youth practitioners (Jess Case, Edmee Kenny, Willow Kellock and Soo-Lin Quek) at the Centre for Multicultural Youth; and
- young people involved in the Centre for Multicultural Youth’s Explore program.
We also drew on the current literature and existing youth participation and engagement guides, including the Wellbeing Health & Youth Guidebook for Youth Engagement in Health Research.