Transformative Community-Based Education Programs: Reimaging a Sense of Community Through Critically Conscious Programming

Historically, Black youth have been labeled as needing to be “saved” and “fixed” because they are “at-risk,” “broken,” and more likely to manifest deviant behavior. This deficit rhetoric frames community-based education programs (CBEPs) that serve Black youth as vital spaces that must prevent and save Black youth from subscribing to such behaviors. This study builds on the paucity of literature regarding CBEPs as spaces that view Black youth as valuable and worthy and encourage youth to critically examine the world around them, which often withholds opportunities and resources. With critical consciousness as the framework, this qualitative study sought to understand how critical consciousness manifested among Black youth actively participating in a focal CBEP in a densely populated community in a Northeastern state. This study grounded itself in a critical consciousness framework, and consisted of semi-structured interviews with 11 participants and utilized constant comparative analysis to identify emergent themes across the data. Three main themes, Transformative space, Narrative switching, and Energy, expounded upon the theoretical framework and ways in which the oppressed move into their own praxis. Implications for future research, practice, and policy are also discussed.