Youth Advisory

To ensure that our research project aligns with the needs and concerns of youth, it is critical to involve youth in the research process.

The FOCUS Youth Advisory Committees (YACs) serve as the consultation groups for the study. It is composed of four to eight young adults (20-29 years) and four to eight adolescents (15-19 years) from France and Canada who meet as separate groups approximately once a month to advise the research team on topics such as data collection and analysis.

The YACs are critical to the research process. They share their knowledge and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to help researchers better understand the contexts of the study, they advise the research team on particular questions that may have been raised in the research, and they even help the research team to design and create documents and presentations aimed at a young adult audience.