WAYS Lab
Welcome to the Wellness And Youth Social action Lab!
Contact us for more information about the WAYS Lab
Click Here to Email Us“Give light and people will find the way.” – Ella Baker
The WAYS Lab is devoted to improving the socio-emotional health of all children through community-partnered research on mental and behavioral health disparities and their solutions. Our areas of focus include developing and testing arts-based interventions, intersections of digital technology and youth mental health, promoting healthy socio-emotional development across the lifespan, and identifying best practices for youth and community-based participatory action research. We do this by centering the voices of youth as co-researchers, engaging with individuals and organizations in Central Virginia, and creating interdisciplinary partnerships at UVA, including with the Center for Community Partnerships, Youth-Nex, and the School of Education and Human Development. Beyond research, we strive to promote holistic well-being through community educational outreach and cultivating a supportive and welcoming lab environment. The WAYS Lab is dedicated to inspiring and training the next generation of child health equity researchers through mentorship and participatory action research.
The Teen Wellness Team at work.
Our Values:
- Commitment to power- and resource-sharing
- Recognition, acceptance, and celebration of many forms of knowledge and knowledge production
- Accountability
- Transparency
- Collaborative, community-partnered scholarship
- Creativity
- Social action as a research outcome
Contact us for more information about the WAYS Lab
Click Here to Email UsAssessing mental and behavioral health disparities: The WAYS Lab is using information from UVA pediatric clinics to better understand the burden of mental illness and related symptoms among children in Charlottesville. Specifically, we are interested in characterizing ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic disparities in common mental illnesses – such as mood disorders, eating disorders, and behavior problems – and their treatment. Current Funding: UVA Department of Pediatrics
Teen Wellness Team: We are a team of adult and youth researchers, including Charlottesville-area high school students, who are conducting a qualitative study. Our goal is to better understand the mental health strengths, needs, and priorities of adolescents in Central Virginia using a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approach. Youth participants on the team also receive a longitudinal curriculum on the process and ethics of research, STEM careers, and how to serve as mental health advocates in our community. Current Funding: UVA Department of Pediatrics
Supporting Dakota youth: We are part of a UVA team working in a research-practice partnership with the organization Nis’to Incorporated to create culturally-informed, out-of-school educational experiences for Dakota youth on the Lake Traverse Reservation in collaboration with youth themselves. Current Funding: Spencer Foundation
Preventing youth suicide: We are part of a UVA team working with local Charlottesville partners in a research-practice partnership to identify community-led approaches to reducing youth suicide. This research is focused on youth of color and uses participatory approaches. Current Funding: UVA Precision Health Initiative
- “Measuring Disparities in the Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health in Primary Care Settings” was published in the journal Mental Health Science
- “Building ethical foundations in research: Adaptation of a research ethics training for adolescents in youth participatory action research” was published in the journal Ethics and Human Research.
- The Teen Wellness Team published a post about their experience with youth participatory action research for the Youth-Nex blog.
- Youth research ethics training (based on CITI modules) – WAYS Lab
- YPAR Nexus – Youth-Nex
- The lab’s youth-led, community-engaged research to support mental health was featured in the Fall 2024 issue of Virginia Medicine magazine.
- Our abstract “Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health in Primary Care Settings” was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2024 annual meeting by Cecilia Rogers and Dr. Irène Mathieu.
- “Measuring Pediatric Mental Health: Strengths and Challenges of the Electronic Health Record” was presented at the the 43rd annual McLemore Birdsong Pediatric Conference by Cecilia Rogers and Dr. Irène Mathieu.
- “Charting pediatric mental health disparities: Lessons from a primary care electronic health record” presented at the 2023 Academic Pediatric Association’s annual Region IV meeting by Cecilia Rogers and Dr. Irène Mathieu.
- Dr. Mathieu gave Grand Rounds at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on the use of narrative practices in health equity education.
- Dr. Mathieu was named a 2022-24 iTHRIV Scholar: https://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu/2022/05/04/meet-our-latest-ithriv-scholars/
- Dr. Mathieu gave Grand Rounds at the UVA Department of Pediatrics on lessons in community-engaged research.
- In collaboration with Dr. Julia Taylor, the team’s workshop proposal on using youth participatory action research was presented at the 2024 Society for Adolescent Health & Medicine Conference.