This project examines how community-engaged youth programs like Changeist support the long-term internalization of civic agency among participants. Centering the Los Angeles Changeist program, we ask: how do curriculum design, service experiences, and youth engagement practices shape young people’s understandings of civic participation, community impact, and their roles in social change? Changeist brings together diverse youth (ages 11–26), many from communities of Color, offering a unique context to explore how programs can more intentionally center participants’ intersectional lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and community priorities. Grounded in theories of critical consciousness (Freire, 1970), youth participatory action research (Cammrota & Fine, 2008), power bases (Raven, 1965), and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), this study uses a mixed-methods approach, including interviews, surveys, ethnographic observations, photovoice, and youth-produced artifacts. Triangulating from both participants and Team Leaders provides insight into how youth may internalize civic agency beyond one iteration of the program. Preliminary insights suggest that opportunities for reflection, collaboration, identity-based civic development, and community-rooted learning play a key role in shaping youths’ sense of agency. This research contributes to ongoing conversations about youth civic development by offering practical recommendations for designing more inclusive, responsive, and empowering community-engaged youth programs.

Our research examines how Hope Street, a nonprofit serving youth and families in downtown Los Angeles, defines and implements a relational approach to service delivery within its youth program. In contrast to transactional models that prioritize short-term outputs, our research asks, “What defines Hope Street’s relational approach, and how does it foster collective community capacity among participants, staff, and partners?” Our study is grounded in Relationship-Based Practice and the Social Ecological Model, and explores how trust and mutual engagement operate across interpersonal and systemic levels. Using a qualitative, community-based participatory approach, data is collected through semi-structured interviews with staff and program alumni, as well as observations and informal conversations with youth participants during after-school programming. Data is coded thematically to identify key patterns and mechanisms of relational engagement. Our findings will aim to clarify the core components of Hope Street’s relational model and demonstrate how these practices contribute to trust-building, sustained participation, and community capacity. The project also produces a practical framework that can support program expansion and inform resource allocation. This research is significant in highlighting how relational service models can address barriers such as mistrust and disengagement in marginalized communities, offering a scalable approach to strengthening long-term community wellbeing.

Currently, instability and tension stem from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States targeting Hispanic/Latinx communities. The Refugee Children Center’s (RCC) community garden fosters belonging despite federal neglect and persecution; The research question that we intend to answer through our project is “How do the Refugee Children Center’s gardening programs impact the sense of community and belonging of immigrant participants?; We will conduct an in-person, semi-structured interview with each of the five Guardians of the Garden as a team; We will analyze the collected data from Mayra Medina-Nunez, the Executive Director of RCC on the gardening projects impact on wellbeing and overall satisfaction for anyone who has utilized the gardening space. Lastly, we also turn to prior research already conducted on the impacts of community garden spaces on the social and emotional health of immigrant participants; Our team is currently in the research gathering and interviewing phase, so no definitive results or conclusion as of yet; Community gardens in immigrant neighborhoods create welcoming spaces for RCC members to feel belonging while offering mental health benefits through nature. They provide fresh food and a culturally meaningful environment, helping immigrants maintain cultural practices and build community. Our project seeks to amplify the impact and outreach of these initiatives.

Rich accounts of everyday life are needed to establish a better account of current ICU environments from a Disability Studies perspective. Much of the medical literature on environmental and structural conditions to promote health in medical facilities, is written from a medical model position on limits of impairment and individual bodies. This study contributes new perspectives within the medical field from a social model perspective of society creating disability. ICUs are controlled environments whose goal is to mitigate and reduce environmental factors that negatively affect the healing process. Based on preliminary observations, ICUs may contribute to negative patient care experiences and exacerbate illness through the “unknown” situations/triggers that are constantly present in these environments. Using a Disability Studies Analysis, this study investigates, how do the environments present within the ICU, for instance loud alarms on IV Pumps, contribute to health inequalities and experiences? Fieldwork at Ronald Reagan ICU, Interviews, and Peer-Review Literature will be utilized as data to analyze the environment. The study will foster new conversations and outlooks on current ICU policies and environmental factors that lessen its capability of treating patients within the disabled community.