Much ventured, much gained: Community-engaged data collection by adolescents and young adults

Background: Community-engaged data collection offers an important opportunity to build community capacity to harness the power of data and create social change. Objectives: To share lessons learned from engaging 16 adolescents and young adults from a partner community to collect data for a public opinion survey as part of a broader community-based participatory research (CBPR) project. Methods: We conducted an analysis of archival documents, process data, and an assessment of survey assistants’ experiences. Lessons Learned: High-quality data were collected from a hard-to-reach population. Survey assistants benefited from exposure to research and gained professional skills. Key challenges included conducting surveys in challenging environments and managing schedule constraints during the school year. The tremendous investment made by project partners was vital for success. Conclusions: Investments required to support engaged data collection were larger than anticipated, as were the rewards, prompting greater attention to the integration of adolescents and young adults in research efforts.