Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
I’m Dr. Emely Medina-Rodriguez, an evaluator and researcher who is passionate about making evaluation more meaningful, inclusive, and useful. Throughout my career, I’ve been especially interested in creating spaces where people, particularly young people and communities whose voices are often overlooked, can share their experiences in ways that feel authentic to them. I enjoy finding creative ways to make research more engaging and accessible by listening, building trust, sharing power, and creating opportunities for people to shape the questions and conversations that matter to them.
Have you ever wondered how to meaningfully engage youth in sharing their ideas and experiences with you and your team? I have been thinking about this question for more than a decade. Over time, I have learned that meaningful engagement often begins when we are willing to invert the power dynamics to let youth lead rather than impose structures they may not recognize or feel comfortable navigating, such as traditional focus group protocols.
For many young people, particularly Black and Brown youth, an evaluator can represent an authority figure who may not immediately inspire trust. This reality is connected to the historically extractive practices of our field, as well as ideologies such as adultism and paternalism. There is an inherent power imbalance between adults and young people, and good intentions alone are not always enough to bridge that gap. To begin balancing the scales, we must draw on the principles of Paulo Freire’s liberatory education and meet young people where they are in their language, experiences, interests, and ways of understanding the topic we want to explore.
One approach I have found especially useful is the use of gamified and art-based focus groups. These methods make the research environment more familiar by incorporating easy-to-follow games and opportunities for creative expression. Games can invite movement and full-body engagement, while art allows youth to communicate ideas that may be difficult to express through conventional questions and answers. Together, these approaches can help young people feel more comfortable, more in control, and more invested in the process.
Grounded in youth participatory action research practices, gamified and art-based methods can be adapted to the age, needs, interests, and circumstances of each group. They can also be translated into virtual settings when necessary. However, creativity does not mean a lack of structure. These approaches require additional preparation, resources, and support, as well as careful alignment between research questions and the activities used to explore them.
Time has taught me that intentionality is essential. We must be thoughtful about how we design each session so that we do not waste the opportunity or the trust that young people have offered us. Activities should be simple, accessible, and easy to follow. Maintaining energy and motivation throughout the session is equally important because youth notice and respond to the energy we bring into the room.
At times, gamified or art-based focus groups may appear too unconventional to be taken seriously. Yet rigor and creativity are not opposites. Each focus group should have a clear purpose and intended outcome aligned with the evaluation’s logic model and research questions. This means understanding the type, quality, and quantity of data needed and developing a framework to guide both the activities and analysis.
Most importantly, youth should have a voice in determining how they participate. Through conversation, listening, and following their advice, we can select activities that reflect their preferences and comfort. The goal is not simply to make research more engaging or fun. It is to create an evaluation process that is intentional, rigorous, and grounded in respect for young people as experts in their own lives.
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