# Youth Empowerment Solutions:  Engaging Youth for Anti-Racism And Cultural Equity (YES-ERACE)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $647,851

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Youth violence is a significant public health concern as over 20% report being in a fight, 19% reported bullying
someone, and 16% reported weapon carriage. Racism is associated with aggression and violence against
racial minorities and may operate to propagate interracial mistrust, fear, hostility, and violence. Racism effects
youth violence both as a stressor leading to violence and as a structural factor resulting in more exposure to
community-level risk factors. The purpose of this study is to adapt and test an evidence-based youth violence
prevention program for middle-school students called Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) to empower youth
to address racism and racial discrimination as a way to reduce of violent behavior. YES for Engaging Youth for
anti-Racism And Cultural Equity (YES-ERACE) will focus on middle school students because this is a
developmental period when independence from parents begin, their own ideas about interpersonal
relationships are formative, and when bullying behavior is at its peak. Empowering children to address violence
at this critical developmental period may enable them to resist negative attitudes and behaviors, such as racial
prejudice and racism. Working with an advisory board of experts and youth, we will integrate the Teaching
Tolerance (TT) curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) into the existing YES curriculum. We
will test YES-ERACE using a group-randomized trial design in summer programs across 6 middle schools in
Genesee County, Michigan. We will examine the effects of the curriculum on individual youths' sense of
empowerment, racist behaviors, and violent behavior. We will also evaluate the revisions of the curriculum
through testing specific modules and obtaining feedback from youth and school staff. Finally, we will examine
both dose and sustainability of YES-ERACE effects. Our specific aims are: 1) adapt the YES curriculum to
include the Teaching Tolerance curriculum and study the adaptation and implementation process for the new
curriculum; 2) test the efficacy of the YES-ERACE curriculum in a randomized design on empowered
outcomes which will mediate the effects of YES-ERACE on perpetration of racist attitudes and behavior; 3) test
the efficacy of the YES-ERACE curriculum on a model that predicts empowered outcomes will mediate
perpetration of racism, and that YES-ERACE effects on aggressive and violent behavior (especially those
motivated by racism) will also be mediated by reducing perpetration of racism over time and; 4) study the
effects of dose received and sustainability of change on the outcomes from AIMS 2 and 3.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10269944
- **Project number:** 5R01MD015024-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Marc A Zimmerman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $647,851
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-24 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10269944

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10269944, Youth Empowerment Solutions:  Engaging Youth for Anti-Racism And Cultural Equity (YES-ERACE) (5R01MD015024-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10269944. Licensed CC0.

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