From evacuation to expertise: using experience to empower youth agency in Grindavík and beyond
This youth participatory action research project, based in Grindavík, supports youth who were evacuated from the town in 2023 because of volcanic activity. In exploring relevant issues, creating solutions, and taking action in collaboration with those in power, young people develop collective power, resilience, and critical thinking. We hope findings inform the development of a youth-centred disaster response framework.
The aim is to build a framework that can allow us to support the youth of Grindavík now and in the future but could also be applied to youth facing other natural disasters. While the volcanic activity near Grindavík is not necessarily linked to climate change, we see rising global temperatures and climate instability creating similar challenges for young people around the world. We believe we could learn important lessons from the youth of Grindavík that could then be applied more globally to support youth facing similar challenges that often leave them feeling disconnected, disempowered, and voiceless.
In this project, we hope to humanely connect with the young people of Grindavík by leveraging Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approaches, which assume that those closest to a given issue possess important lived experience and are experts in understanding the root of the problems they face. With YPAR, young people are given the opportunity to critically analyze their own experiences and propose solutions based on their insights. Engaging young people as co-researchers is a crucial element in creating social change that is realistic, sustainable, and grounded in the real needs of those affected by the change.
Meaningfully engaging young people in these ways, however, is difficult. Society tends to have a deficit view of youth, which reflects a broader societal trend of adultism, where adults maintain control and authority over youth, leading to policies that are inherently deficit-focused. Trauma narratives surrounding youth often portray them as victims unable to navigate their circumstances, further entrenching deficit perspectives that overlook resilience and strength. This perspective can create psychological barriers that can inhibit youth from seeing themselves as agents of change within their communities especially when facing large problems like volcanic eruptions and evacuations.
A primary goal in this project is to emphasize the many positive attributes the youth of Grindavík possess, as opposed to only the trauma of displacement. We ultimately seek to position the youth of Grindavík as valuable experts on youth resilience and support them in facilitating sessions with other young people, presenting at meetings, conferences, and co-writing articles about YPAR in response to natural disasters.
To that end, we envision three main objectives in this work:
- Building Leadership. This project builds youth leadership as it moves away from often tokenistic adult-led models. We propose a process whereby youth collaborate with those in power to use their lived experience to inform research priorities, conduct research, and take action. The ultimate aim is to empower and support youth to lead research with their peers throughout Iceland.
- Developing and Strengthening Relationships. The project prioritises the development and strengthening of relationships throughout. The adult facilitators will build community with Grindavík youth, with a particular focus on developing trusting and safe relationships. As equal partners in the research, youth will feel valued and become community decision-makers.
- Crafting Agency. As experts in the issues raised by the Grindavík evacuation, the youth’s lived experience will be crucial in the problem-solving process. This work aims to develop resilient youth who are aware of the impact of problems and empowered to take meaningful action.
- Creating a Youth-Centered Disaster Response Framework. Research about disasters reveals a need for framework that supports young people and children before, during, and after erptions, fires, floods, and extreme weather events. We hope to work with the young people in Grindavík to develop such a framework that could be used locally, across Iceland, and around the work to ensure young people are meaningfully involved in preparation and response to disasters that face their communities. This would provide guidance for communities to support not only the physical safety of young people but also their social and psychological wellbeing.
Funded by: University of Iceland Research Fund.
Keywords: Nature disaster, Leadership, Relationship, Agency, Policy, YPAR, Youth-Centered Disaster Response Framework
Faculty of Social Work
