You are not research objects but true co-researchers. Researcher Roel Lutkenhaus from Momentum has collaborated with your peers from Rotterdam South to investigate what they consider important when it comes to living a healthy life. For six weeks, he worked with the Chance to influence Foundation and the TalentzSkool Foundation to gain insight into to what extent young people find their living environment healthy. He wanted to know what motivates them to live healthily and what they find challenging about it. He also examined the role of their environment and social media in this regard. To get answers to these questions, the youth came up with social media campaigns for a healthy living environment.

Getting creative

The youth went all out during the creative workshops. Are you curious what have done?:

1. Through theater, music, and circle talks, the young people discussed what things in their environment make it difficult to live a healthy life. This includes the influence of their parents or social media, for example.
2. The created their own social media campaigns for a healthy living environment. They came up with hashtags, t-shirts, social media challenges, and raps. They proudly presented their end results to the group.
3. At the end, the young people discussed the workshops and all the feedback they received on their creations together.

Do you want to see all the fantastic creations? Watch the video below.

Roel has learned that researchers view the reasons why young people live unhealthy lives differently from the youth themselves. He hopes that other organisations will be inspired to work with youth, listen to them, and help more youth live healthy and happy lives.