Undergraduate students majoring in child and family development (CHFD) at a southeastern public doctoral/research university were required to complete 14 hours of service learning in a local after school program as part of the course requirements in a class titled "Youth Development." The course is a required course for majors and…

This case study describes youths' roles in meal packing events and food drives associated with 4-H and FFA organizations in Missouri. Findings suggest the idea of a local event often stemmed from a youth who had participated in a meal packing event on a state or national level. However, youth perceived that once they expressed their idea, the…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the perceptions of participants of PeaceJam towards personal and collective power, service learning, social justice and democratic education as examined through participant observations, interviews, focus groups, artifacts, and documents of individuals engaging with the non-profit…

As study abroad education becomes increasingly common, so does the need to understand how different outreach opportunities alter the study abroad experience. To determine how outreach program design links to perceptions of personal growth, we surveyed 72 college students who participated in different youth outreach activities while studying…

Purpose: Service-learning (SL) is a widely accepted pedagogy that can enrich the learning experience for students in higher education while they apply their skills in a meaningful community service. This research is part of a larger project that aimed to motivate educational achievement among youths living in a priority neighborhood through SL.…

South African university students (n = 18; aged 21-28) participated in the LifeMatters train-the-trainer (TTT) workshop. Ten trained participants (n = 10; aged 21-23) then implemented the program as youth facilitators at three local schools. The study aimed to describe changes in participants resulting from the TTT and implementation experience.…

Safety protocols for COVID-19 necessitated changes to this action research project. This article describes the theoretical framework of Community-Based Art Education for providing Service-Learning in an art education preparation program during the global pandemic. Art education students joined the local Boys & Girls Club (BGC) and a local…

In line with best practices for high-quality out-of-school time (OST) programming and youth development, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) programming focuses on the program environment, the establishment of positive relationships, opportunities for youth development, and opportunities for families to engage. Research has consistently shown…

We present a case study of a multi-year, academic civic engagement (ACE) collaboration in a computer science capstone course. ACE projects in computer science provide an avenue for students to apply software development concepts to real-world projects with actual clients, and can offer meaningful engagement with ethical issues. The typical…

Day camps are a powerful context for youth development. The American Camp Association and Leave No Trace have been integral in supporting youth development by identifying outcomes associated with participation in outdoor recreation. Recreation majors in the programming class used the camp as a service-learning component of the class that offered…

The Promise Fellow Program is an intervention designed to prevent dropout amongst students in grades 6-12 in Minnesota that show early warning signs of school disengagement. The program is led by interventionists known as Promise Fellows and provides three research-based supports that align with the National Dropout Prevention Center's "Basic…

Adventure-based learning is used by behavioral health providers to connect clients to therapeutic activities outside traditional settings. These approaches often aim to build internal and external assets that support positive youth development. Here we evaluate the impact of an experiential learning curriculum on youth development and identify…

This paper examines how two language educators of color developed critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA) in a combined youth participatory action research and teacher education program. Specifically, as a multilingual and diverse group of educators, we chose to use Latin@/o Critical Theory (LatCrit) as our methodology to align with the…