COVID-19 and recent racial injustices like the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor have highlighted the importance of social ties. Amidst the viral pandemic, many have socially distanced themselves from their social networks, breaking down crucial support systems and creating threats to one's psychosocial well-being. On the other hand, recent racial injustices have also sparked an unprecedented social movement that has mobilized social networks to take collective action for social change. As such, both of these stressors emphasize the importance of social ties and networks for both social support and collective action.
In particular, low-SES communities and racial minority groups have been disproportionately impacted by these stressors. As such, we are interested in investigating how local organizations, embedded in these communities, currently build and facilitate social ties among their constituents, and how current uses of communication technology might improve or hinder these social ties. Specifically, we examine this socio-technical infrastructure in the context of youth empowerment programs. These programs often focus on building social ties among youth, peers, and adults as a means of providing social support and building capacity for collective action. Through understanding these programs as a socio-technical infrastructure, we hope to envision how technology might augment existing capacities among community-based organizations as a means of supporting the formation of social relationships among low-SES and racial minority youth.