Children rarely get the chance to participate actively and centrally in the interventions they receive and the construction of knowledge concerning them. Inspired by Youth Participatory Action Research, a research approach associated with transformative goals, we worked with children ages 7 to 12 to identify elements facilitating their participation in service organizations. To avoid reproducing the usual inequalities in relationships between children and adults, we wanted to create an anchor point for the project that fostered the establishment of a relationship between the child and the researcher. This article aims to 1) identify epistemological benchmarks to justify the appropriateness of creating relationships in research, 2) describe initiatives to sustain the creation of a non-hierarchical relationship with children ages 7 to 12, 3) target those elements that foster their participation and 4) discuss the tensions that appear during participatory research with children.