Youth Research Their Community – Leili Lyman

Episode 17
Guest: Leili Lyman
Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW

Leili Lyman, a first-generation college student at UC Berkeley, shares the Youth Participatory Action Research she conducted as a high schooler at the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, California. Her research explored why marijuana was the primary coping strategy for youth in her community—uncovering how trauma, lack of resources, and distrust of adults created significant barriers to seeking help. This episode centers youth voice and lived experience as a powerful tool for understanding and addressing community needs.

In this episode:

• What Youth Participatory Action Research is and how Leili learned it at the RYSE Youth Center
• Why youth in Richmond reported marijuana as a safer coping strategy than talking to adults
• Trauma, lack of resources, stigma, and other barriers to counseling for youth in her community
• Leili's experience as a first-generation college student and researcher at UC Berkeley

Email leililyman0705@berkeley.edu
Article in Chronicle of Social Change https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-trauma-2/why-do-so-many-youth-use-marijuana-as-a-coping-tool-heres-what-youth-had-to-say
RYSE Center https://rysecenter.org

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Music credit
"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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