A Participatory Framework for Building Behavioral Health Workforce Pathways for Men of Color

Background and Purpose:

Persistent social inequities have exposed the limitations of traditional top-down approaches to program design and policy implementation in social work and public systems. Participatory research is often applied as a discrete method rather than embedded as a sustained mechanism for shared governance. This paper reframes participatory research as a democratic infrastructure that institutionalizes community voice within decision-making processes. Drawing on the design of the New York City Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) Men Heal program, an initiative aimed at building a representative social work workforce by recruiting, training, and supporting men of color through educational and employment pathways, this study examines how community engagement can move from episodic consultation to continuous, system-level participation. The guiding question is: how can participatory structures be institutionalized within behavioral health workforce pipeline programs to embed community voice in design and implementation in ways that reflect the pointed needs of a target population and advance shared governance and equity?

Methods:

This qualitative study draws on program documentation, participant surveys, and semi-structured interviews with approximately 20–30 participants, including community members (men of color interested in enrolling in MSW programs and men of color enrolled in social work education and behavioral health workforce pathways), as well as public agencies. Participants are recruited using purposive and snowball sampling to ensure representation across lived experience, program implementation, and system-level perspectives. The research design emphasizes co-creation across different phases of program development, including research question development, data collection, and analysis. Data collection is iterative and occurs across multiple pre-implementation phases, with semi-structured interviews conducted at key design milestones and surveys administered at regular intervals. Data are examined using thematic analysis with inductive and deductive coding to identify patterns related to participatory governance, workforce pipeline development, and community engagement in behavioral health systems.

Findings:

Preliminary qualitative findings from program documentation, stakeholder engagement, and early interviews indicate that structural inequities across educational, licensure, and workforce systems significantly constrain entry into behavioral health careers for men of color. Across surveys and interviews, there was strong agreement that culturally responsive mentoring, paid training opportunities, and long-term relational support systems are critical components of effective workforce development programs. Findings also highlight the importance of embedding community members in early-stage decision-making processes to improve program relevance, legitimacy, and trust. Institutional partners emphasized structural constraints, including funding silos, short program cycles, and limited cross-agency coordination, that challenge implementation of participatory workforce models. These findings directly informed the design of the Men Heal initiative.

Conclusion & Implications:

This paper positions community members not only as research participants but as co-producers of knowledge and partners in governance. By offering a participatory framework, the Men Heal initiative illustrates how local governments can begin to institutionalize community voice in the design of behavioral health workforce pipeline programs. Findings suggest that embedding structured co-creation processes before program launch can enhance equity, strengthen program relevance, and build institutional trust. This study has implications for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to move beyond episodic engagement toward sustained participatory infrastructure within public systems.