Child & Youth Services, 35:316–342, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0145-935X print/1545-2298 online DOI: 10.1080/0145935X.2014.962132 Youth-Guided Youth Engagement: Participatory Action Research (PAR) With High-Risk, Marginalized Youth YOSHITAKA IWASAKI Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada JANE SPRINGETT Centre for Health Promotion Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada PUSHPANJALI DASHORA Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ANNE-MARIE MCLAUGHLIN Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada TARA-LEIGH MCHUGH Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada YOUTH 4 YEG TEAM Engaging youth who live with high-risk, marginalized conditions presents a significant challenge in our society, considering the prevalence of disconnect and distrust they often experience within their social environments/systems. Yet, meaningful youth engagement is a key concept not only for youth development, but also for a systems change to more effectively support high- risk youth and families. This article presents a framework of youth engagement developed over 9 months, using participatory action research (PAR) with 16 youth leaders in a community- based research team. Although this framework has incorporated the youth leaders’ lived experiences, talents, and voices, posi- tive youth development (PYD) and social justice youth develop- ment (SJYD) have theoretically contextualized our research. Youth Address correspondence to Yoshitaka Iwasaki, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, 2-252 Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 4P6 Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/WCYS. 316 Downloaded by [FU Berlin] at 07:41 23 March 2015