The San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition (SDRCC) is publishing its 2023 – 2024 Youth Community Assessment Report, completed in collaboration with our UC San Diego Center for Community Health Refugee Health Unit (RHU) – which serves as the backbone organization for SDRCC. The 64-page report follows a comprehensive survey administered to over 500 community participants through interviews with peer-based staff of SDRCC member organizations.
The purpose of the survey was to better understand the needs, challenges, priorities, and strengths of youth from local refugee communities with a specific focus on behavioral health. It was designed and implemented as part of the SDRCC’s Youth Development Initiative (YDI), an SDRCC initiative that aims to ensure that youth from diverse communities are in positions of leadership. Members of the Young Leaders Council provided feedback on the content of the survey, ensuring that the topics, questions, and informational materials provided were all culturally relevant using a community-based approach.
Survey respondents were asked to express their views on youth needs and priorities across several social determinants of health: education; employment and job readiness; social and emotional well-being; community safety and environment; food access; healthcare access; and substance use.
The survey included 56 questions and consisted of three sections – demographics, opinions, and experiences on youth and strengths and needs, and solutions. In addition to survey responses, the final report also includes qualitative information from the focus groups hosted by members of the Young Leaders Council in their respective communities.
The report presents an overview of key findings and future recommendations collected through the survey. The results shared in the report will be used to inform future SDRCC programming and advocacy efforts for the coalition in alignment with community-identified needs, strengths and priorities.
Our Center is dedicated to supporting and collaborating with organizations like SDRCC to advance their community work through data-driven efforts. You can access the full report here at the SDRCC website or view the executive summary for an overview.