Youth as Co-Researchers: Inclusion, Recognition, and Advocacy (3 of 3)

To wrap up the series, we turn to another group that's routinely excluded from research meant to serve them: young people.

VOICE — the Childhood Ethics Project — is co-led by a Youth Advocacy Council and university-based researchers. It started as a conventional academic collaboration and evolved into something more deliberate: a project that actively works to include youth not as subjects but as co-creators of knowledge. We talk with VOICE co-investigator and Canadian Journal of Public Health senior editor Mary Ellen Macdonald, Youth Advocacy Council chair and childhood ethics researcher Nika Rovensky, and recent McGill graduate and youth advocacy council leader Ryan Kent about the systemic barriers youth face when trying to contribute to research, what meaningful inclusion looks like in practice, and how a single rejected manuscript sparked a new editorial policy at a major public health journal. Conversation facilitated by Candice Barrans, who joins us again from the Siden Research Team.

[download transcript]

Health Canada Study (referenced in the episode):

• Video created by Nika & Ryan: Engaging Young People in End-of-Life Care
• Campbell, S., N. Rovensky, R. Kent, L. Delaney, F. A. Carnevale, and M. E. Macdonald. 2026. “Listening to Young People on Childhood Death: A Youth-Focused Participatory Approach to Children's Palliative and End-of-Life Research and Policymaking.” Children & Society1–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.70066.

Links:

• VOICE The Childhood Ethics Project
• Siden Research Team
• BC Children's Hospital Research Institute