Importance of engaging the voices of youth stakeholders: Lessons learnt from developing and validating a culturally responsive Caribbean measure of the Five Cs of positive youth development (PYD)

There exist many positive youth development (PYD) initiatives within the Caribbean. With limited resources, identifying program impact is integral. While evaluation efforts are made, tools used are largely developed and normed in Western populations. These instruments often lack cultural integrations which aids identification of constructs and outcomes. With the rise of PYD initiatives, particularly those grounded in Five C’s principles, we sought to develop and validate a culturally responsive Caribbean measure of the Five Cs. To do this, a Caribbean youth-expert-panel was assembled, question bank created, think-alouds conducted, and data collected. While a measure was created, lessons emerged which could prove beneficial to further efforts at CRE scale-development. Key learnings we shed light on, surrounds: determining stages to incorporate youth voice, and the deleterious impact of their exclusion; identifying/selecting gate-keepers who are also youth advocates; impact environment has on youth willingness to engage and empowering youth shared ownership of efforts.