In this study, I examine and contextualize involvement in two youth-led community organizations in Russia---The Ethnographical Institute 'Discovery of the World' and 'The Centre of International Programmes 'Bridge of Peace'---in order to understand, (1) how some youth are managing to overcome the oft-reported developmental risks associated with Russia's political, economic and cultural transition to a free market economy, and (2) the role youth are playing in forging an empowering space for youth participation in healthy community development. I examine the relationships between history, policy, health, risk and discourse in Moscow, so that the innovative strategies youth use to ensure individual and collective agency within the broad framework of shifting economic, political and social realities in post-Soviet Russia can be exposed. Fieldwork was conducted in February, 2006, in Moscow, Russia. There, 20 youth participants participated in qualitative interviews and completed questionnaires, and 6 adults identified by the youth as role models/mentors to their success took part in a 3-hour focus group session. Interviews with youth participants revealed multiple, and distinct hardships, as well as a remarkable number of diverse resources they mobilize to protect themselves from risks to health, and foster resilience, wellbeing and empowerment. Drawing on discussions of power and control, youth narratives of personal and collective wellness guide my understandings of empowerment, resilience and youth civic engagement in context.
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