The Summer Youth Research Institute (SYRI) of ICR's Youth Action Research Institute (YARI) (formerly the National Teen Action Research Center) offers Hartford area teenagers the opportunity to use research to solve important social issues facing youth today.

Youth are employed as members of the ICR research staff during the annual six-week summer program. Using cooperative instructional techniques, Institute staff and teen facilitators train the youth in research methods, such as surveying, interviewing, photodocumentation, and mapping. They then help them conduct a group research project on a social issue of their choice. Local activists are often invited to speak to the teens about models of social change and the use of strategies like lobbying, petitioning, boycotting, and social marketing. Youth also learn how to use the arts to influence audiences with their research results.

After training, the youth spend the majority of their time out in the field conducting research. Depending on their chosen topic, they may interview Connecticut legislators, staff from state and social service agencies, youth organizations and hospitals, as well as their peers. In addition to interviews and the use of other research methods, they make trips to various universities where they meet with students, share research results and meet faculty researchers who act as role models.

At the end of six weeks, the youth exhibit their results in the ICR Gallery. Using interactive visual techniques, they present their findings to an audience of ICR staff, program collaborators, funders, youth groups, and their parents. A number of young people continue to work at ICR during the school year as youth action researchers and peer educators. They are encouraged to take action on their research results by continuing and completing short and long-term action plans.

Youth have investigated and acted on a variety of topics including teen violence and drug abuse, discrimination against youth based on sexual orientation, teen stress, school dropout rates, sex at an early age, and AIDS attitudes among their peers.

The SYRI has been supported with federal, state, and private funding, including the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, the State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, the Gill Foundation, Capital Workforce Partners, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Program collaborators have included the Center for International Community Health Studies at UCONN, the Pediatrics AIDS Program of the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, the CT Primary Care Association, the North Central Area Health Education Center, and Yale University.

Read a publication about the 2004 Summer Youth Research Project.

Read articles in the Hartford Courant about the Summer Youth Research Institute in 2005 and 2003!