The Effects of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Creative Arts on Youth Wellbeing in Bogotá, Colombia: Learnings Towards the Development of Psychosocial Peacebuilding
This study demonstrates that Participatory Action Research (PAR) combined with creative arts in Bogotá, Colombia, effectively integrates Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) with peacebuilding by fostering safe community spaces, enhancing emotional intelligence, and utilizing mechanisms like *sentipensamiento* and memory work to improve youth wellbeing.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In cities scarred by decades of conflict, the path to peace is often mapped by politicians and soldiers, while the quiet work of healing individual minds is left to doctors and therapists. These two worlds—peacebuilding and mental health support—have historically operated in separate rooms, rarely speaking to one another. Yet, for people living in the aftermath of violence, the internal struggle for emotional stability and the external struggle for a safe society are deeply intertwined. When a community is fractured, the people within it carry that fracture in their bodies and their memories. Conversely, when individuals learn to process their trauma and reconnect with one another, the foundation for a lasting peace begins to take root. The question researchers have long grappled with is how to bring these two fields together in a way that respects the people living through the crisis, rather than imposing solutions from the outside.
This study, conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, explores a different approach by bringing young adults together not as patients or subjects, but as co-creators of their own healing. The researchers worked with thirty young people, aged eighteen to twenty-seven, over a period of twelve weeks. Instead of a traditional therapy session or a political meeting, the group engaged in a process called Participatory Action Research. In this method, the participants themselves decide what needs to be studied and how to address it, moving through cycles of planning, acting, and reflecting. The sessions were filled with creative activities, including drawing, writing, and theatre exercises, designed to help the group explore their feelings, share their stories, and build a sense of community. The goal was to see if this shared, creative process could improve their mental wellbeing and foster the kind of empathy and connection necessary for peace.
The results showed that the process worked, creating a ripple effect of positive change that lasted beyond the final session. By the end of the twelve weeks, the young people reported feeling significantly better about their lives. They described the group as a "safe space" where they could speak honestly without fear of judgment, a place where they felt truly heard. This environment allowed them to develop what they called "emotional intelligence." This did not mean they became experts in psychology, but rather that they learned to listen to their own bodies and emotions, to recognize when they were stressed, and to use creative tools to manage those feelings. One participant described a moment of deep physical release during a breathing exercise, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from their chest. Another noted that the sessions helped them stop isolating themselves during difficult times and instead reach out to others.
Three specific elements drove this transformation. First, the group practiced a concept known as "feeling-thinking," a way of processing the world that honors both emotion and reason equally, rather than trying to suppress feelings with logic alone. Second, they engaged in memory work, using art and storytelling to revisit difficult past experiences in a supportive setting. This allowed them to reframe painful memories and share them with others, turning private burdens into shared stories. Third, they practiced deep, mutual dialogue. Through conversation, they learned to see each other as human beings with complex histories, rather than just strangers or potential threats. This combination of feeling, remembering, and talking created a powerful sense of connection.
The impact was not just a fleeting feeling of happiness during the sessions. When the researchers checked in with the participants three months later, individual coping skills and self-understanding had been retained, though the collective sense of community proved harder to sustain independently. The young people had internalized the skills they learned. They could still access the calming techniques they practiced, and they continued to use the tools of listening and empathy in their daily lives. Some even began to share these methods with friends or used them in their own teaching jobs. However, the study also revealed a challenge: while the individuals grew stronger, the group itself struggled to stay connected once the structured sessions ended. The sense of community that had formed so easily inside the workshop was harder to maintain in the outside world, where life is less predictable and the participants did not share the same daily routine.
The researchers also noted a tension that arose regarding the role of the facilitators. The young participants expected the leaders to be fully engaged and to share their own views on peace and justice, but the researchers, bound by academic norms of neutrality, sometimes held back. This created a subtle distance that the participants noticed. The study suggests that for this kind of work to be truly effective, the people leading the process must be willing to be vulnerable and take a stand, rather than remaining detached observers.
Ultimately, this paper demonstrates that combining mental health support with peacebuilding is a promising approach when the community leads the way. By using creative arts and shared reflection, young people in Bogotá were able to heal their own emotional wounds while simultaneously building the social bonds that peace requires. The study does not claim to have definitively proven causality or solved the complex problems of conflict in Colombia, but it offers a clear, evidence-based model for how to start the work. It shows that when people are given the space to feel, remember, and speak together, they can rebuild their own sense of self and their connection to others, laying the groundwork for a more peaceful society from the bottom up.
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