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Dr. Sarah Flicker, who has a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto, is assistant professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.

Research

Sarah’s research interests lie in the area of youth health, HIV, urban health, health promotion, ethics, the social determinants of health, and community-based participatory research.

She was a lead investigator on the Toronto Teen Survey, an initiative funded by the OHTN, CIHR, the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives and the Wellesley Institute. The study asked more than 1,200 teenagers about their experience accessing sexual health information and services in Toronto. The study found that many teens faced significant barriers accessing services. It also discovered that, although sex education is mandatory in Ontario schools, only 62% of the teens surveyed reported learning about sex in school. Sarah and her team were awarded a CIHR Synapse Youth Mentorship Award for excellence in involving high school students in health research.

Sarah currently holds an OHTN Scholar Award to study Critical Approaches to Youth HIV Prevention, Support & Community Based Research.

She has been the lead investigator on a number of other OHTN funded grants including:

• The Positive Youth Research Project (Co-Principal Investigator: Darien Taylor)
• Bodymapping, a Self-Narrative and Treatment Literacy: an Exploratory Study of Participant Experiences (Co-Principal Investigator: Eric Mykhalovskiy)
• Taking Action!  Using Arts-Based Approaches to Develop Aboriginal Youth Leadership in HIV Prevention (Co-Principal Investigator: Randy Jackson, also funded by CIHR)

Findings

A selection of Sarah’s publications include:

• The Toronto Teen Survey Report (PI-J. Larkin) 2009
• Community-based research in AIDS-service organizations: What helps and what doesn’t? (PI) 2009
• Survey design from the ground up: Collaboratively creating the Toronto teen survey (PI) 2008
• Ethical approaches to adolescent participation in sexual health research (PI) 2008
• The greater involvement of people living with AIDS principle: Theory versus practice in Ontario’s HIV/AIDS community-based research sector (PI-R. Travers) 2008
• HIV risk, systemic inequities, and Aboriginal youth: Widening the circle for HIV prevention programming (PI-J. Larkin) 2007
• Ethical dilemmas in community-based participatory research: Recommendations for institutional review boards (PI) 2007

Impact

Sarah's work focuses on involving young people in health promotion and HIV prevention. She uses innovative methodologies to reach young people and develop their skills and capacities to engage in research and community development. Through participatory research processes she continues to challenge they ways that we think about youth risk and helps us to think creatively about new possibilities for HIV prevention. through this work, she has also challenged traditional approaches to research ethics in community based research. She and her research team developed innovative alternatives to parental consent processess when seeking to interview teenagers in the Toronto Teen Survey. Her work examining the research ethics board application process revealed significant barriers for community-based researchers. It also helped inform the creation of the OHTN/University of Toronto partnership to develop an HIV-specific Research Ethics Board for community-based researchers who do not have an academic partner.

Sarah Flicker (right) with Eudice Goldberg at an annual OHTN Research Conference