The Cultural Agency Toolkit
Cultural agency refers to a range of creative activities that contribute to communities, including research, pedagogy, activism, and the arts. Specifically, cultural agency is the capacity of groups of individuals to perform intentionally, make creative choices and narrative, and shape their inter-relationships and social environment. Instead of being passive recipients of culture, the agents are often actively engaged in creative expression, storytelling, and activism for sustainable cultural changes. It focuses on bridging communications across different stakeholders in each community and using shared values, beliefs, heritage, and practices for purposeful action, from artistic projects to community engagement, to ensure local voices drive cultural sustainability.
Based on the Cultural Agency Model, I adopted two key implementation science frameworks, including the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) models to develop the following 5-step toolkit for building community resilience through musician-scholar advocacy and musical performance in underserved communities. The goal of this toolkit is to demonstrate the role and concrete steps for those young musician-scholars who aspire to reach out to community residents in underserved areas, empower their self-efficacy to address their mental health problems, and foster community resilience and cohesion.
Toolkit Steps
Step 1. Theoretical Framework: The Biopsychosocial Core
Step 2. Exploration (Community Needs Assessment)
Step 3. Preparation (The "Train-the-Trainer" Protocol)
Step 4. Implementation (The Performance Intervention)
Step 5. Evaluation (The Feedback Loop)
Download the Cultural Agency Toolkit.
References:
Cultural Agency in the Americas
"Cultural agency refers to a range of creative activities that contribute to society, including pedagogy, research, activism, and the arts ..."
Evaluating the Public Health Impact of Health Promotion Interventions: The RE-AIM Framework
"We conceptualize the public health impact of an intervention as a function of 5 factors: reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation, and maintenance ..."
Enabling the implementation of evidence based practice: a conceptual framework (PARiHS)
"Successful implementation of research into practice is a function of the interplay of ... the context or environment into which the research is to be placed, and the method or way in which the process is facilitated ..."
Research and Advocacy
Active Music Engagement Improves Youth Resilience
Xuan WY, Ran H, Che Y, et al. (2026). The Association between Music Making and Youth Resilience: Evidence from a Large Survey. Journal of Adolescent Health, 78(1), S84-S85.
Cutting Corners in Scientific Integrity Undermines Public Trust.
Xuan WY. (November 24, 2025). The Cost of Cutting Corners in Science. The Cypress.
Reductions in Scientific Funding Hurt Younger Generations of Researchers.
Xuan WY. (March 9, 2025). Stand Up for Science and Prevent NIH and NSF Funding Cuts. Change.org.
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