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Introduction: Co-production of health services is becoming more routine with young people but such involvement in research lags behind, especially in the field of health promotion research. Our aim was to co-design and test a community intervention with parents and children focused on changing lifestyle behaviours which might contribute to childhood obesity on a deprived local housing estate in London. Methods: Within the context of an established integrated care collaborative, we supported parent and child volunteers to co-design and deliver a health and wellbeing intervention for local children. This was in the form of a 6-week “sprint” of exercise and healthy living activities. The subsequent evaluation was carried out by two children who were trained in basic qualitative and quantitative research methods by us. They designed, conducted and analysed data from intervention participants with repeat follow-up and analysis at 2 years. Results: Twenty-six children were recruited with 12 completing the programme and 7 followed up for 2 years. Young people aged 12 and older universally felt they could communicate their views better in a focus group led by a local young person with established trust and agency. We observed the value of our peer evaluator’s contribution to the design process and their insights during analysis. Post programme there were improvements in physical activity and nutrition scores in participants using validated scores, and themes relating to healthy living which were retained at 2 years. Discussion: The use of participatory evaluation in a citizen-driven intervention allowed us to breakdown barriers such as ?? within hard to reach communities, as well as enabling more meaningful results. We have demonstrated the desirability and acceptability of participatory research with children and young people. This intervention also reinforces that small, community–designed and delivered initiatives have the power to effect behaviour change sustained at 2 years. *Correspondence to: Katie Dharmarajah, London North West University NHS Trust, River Island Centre for academic child health, Level 7 Maternity Northwick Park Hospital Watford Road, Harrow HA1 3UJ, UK, E-mail: k.dharmarajah@nhs.net Received: December 17, 2019; Accepted: January 07, 2020; Published: January 10, 2020 Introduction Childhood obesity is an evolving public health crisis. In 2017 one in five UK children start primary school obese or overweight, which increases to more than one in three by the time they leave [1]. Data suggests that our ‘obesogenic’ environment [2]  disproportionately impacts on those growing up and living in areas where there are health and social inequalities [2]. At age 5, children living in poverty are twice as likely to be obese as their least deprived peers, and by the age of 11 they are 3 times as likely [3]. A recent systematic review [4] found that targeted; schooldelivered, environmental or empowerment interventions to be the three most effective approaches in reducing socio-economic inequalities in obesity in this age group. Interventions that included behaviour change techniques, skills acquisition such as cooking skills, rewards and community-based resources were most effective. Elements deemed to be critical were those that were culturally appropriate and included parental engagement [5]. This is in keeping with the 2008 MRC guidance [6,7] in the evaluation of complex interventions, which emphasises the importance of local adaptation of “core elements”. The guidance encourages piloting and assessment of feasibility and acceptability of potential intervention approaches. The SHIFT-evidence [8] principles of: ‘act scientifically and pragmatically’; ‘embrace complexity’; and ‘engage and empower’ provided a framework for our group. It is well described that the process of co-production creates more meaningful and effective interventions, however, evaluation and research tends to be clinician driven. Traditionally patients are viewed as participants in research, rather than active partners and this is even more so for children and young people’s (CYP) involvement. The recent article by Preston, et al. [9] states “Everyone with a legitimate interest in research should be able to contribute to its design, review, conduct and dissemination” The NIHR INVOLVE advisory group defines involvement as ‘research being carried out  with  or  by  CYP, rather than to, about or for them [10,11]. We wished to use such participatory research methods and involve parents and children in both the design Dharmarajah K (2020) Tackling childhood obesity in the community using a participatory action research project with local children and young people Volume 4: 2-5 Health Edu Care, 2020 doi: 10.15761/HEC.1000169 of health promotion interventions and their evaluation in relation to adoption of healthy lifestyles and prevention of obesity.