2025/06/21 by Ardebili Ahadzadeh, Aria, Ereyi-Osas, Whitney, Razavi, Omar +2
#Community Engagement #Ethnic Minority #Immigrant #Inclusive #Newcomer #Participatory #Power Informed #Racialized #Transdisciplinary #Visible Minority
paper · doi:10.11575/prism/49018
Background: When starting any program, it is essential to have an efficient approach of recruitment among your target population. We outline below the approach employed for recruiting immigrant and refugee teens between the ages of 14 and 18 for the Refugee and Immigrant SelfEmpowerment (RISE) for Health and Wellness summer program. Methods: We planned for a multi-pronged approach as we anticipated that this approach would be able to touch the largest number of youths, thus increasing our likelihood of having participants. As such, we aimed at placing our recruitment materials in schools, community activities, and social media. We expected that these would be the highest viewed areas during Covid-19. In schools, posters were placed within hallways and were shared by RISE youth volunteers. Social media was employed through the use of weekly Instagram posts regarding health matters and through triweekly stories endorsing the program. Finally, RISE posters had been sent to community and cultural groups throughout Calgary for their distribution. Results: More than 20 students applied to participate at the beginning of the year whereas only 9 completed the program indicating that some methods were more effective than others. The specific factors are yet to be known and will be found through future focus groups. Conclusion: Feedback from youth regarding the approach is still needed to understand the most effective approaches used. However, it should be noted that a number of other approaches, such as promotion through a central website and parental engagement, should be taken in the future.