School extracurricular activities are an important site for positive youth development in low-resource international contexts due to their relative accessibility and community relevance. Such activity programs can simultaneously illuminate local best practices and learn from research in other contexts where positive youth development research is…

Out-of-school time (OST) settings are powerful contexts for youth development when programs and services are intentionally designed. "Youth Development Principles and Practices in Out-of-School Time Settings" increases the capacity of students and professionals to facilitate youths' optimal transition to adulthood through maximizing the…

The Information Age Publishing new book series, Current Issues in Out-of-School Time, is designed with a purpose to disseminate original research and promising practices that further the Out-of-School Time (OST) field. This first book sets the foundation on which the series rests upon, by offering an analysis of the progress made since the 2000s,…

4-H Bloco Drum and Dance is an afterschool program that teaches adolescents drumming, dancing, and theater arts in the rich traditions of Brazilian Carnaval. Teens learn to express themselves in a variety of modalities and perform at community events. The program was developed by a community coalition that included 4-H, other youth programs, and…

While research on program effectiveness offers ample evidence that afterschool programs can benefit young people in a variety of ways, this same body of research demonstrates that not all programs are equally effective (Granger, 2008). Some programs show positive results in many or all major outcome categories. Other programs are associated with…

Presents a method of evaluating youth programs in accordance to a youth development agenda. Surveys of black adolescents regarding after-school and school-day experiences, and of students from other after-school programs, indicate that only some after-school programs provide more youth development opportunities and supports than school-day…

This study examined six Beacon centers, which are community centers located in public school buildings that offer a range of activities and services to participants of all ages, before and after school, in the evenings, and on weekends. Individual Beacons are managed by community-based organizations. The study examined how the Beacons provided…

As demand for after-school services has grown, the public has responded with support for growth in federal, state, and local funding for these services. As in other successful grassroots movements, this high level of support is evident across groups with diverse objectives. Some after-school advocates are mainly interested in increasing the supply…

Opportunities for children and youth to engage in activities during out-of-school hours come in various shapes, sizes and flavors. At one end of the spectrum are highly structured, five-day-a-week, school-based programs focused broadly on encouraging and supporting academic and social development. At the other end are assorted activities and…

As the amount of resources allocated to out-of-school (OST) programming and policymakers' demands for research-based results increase, there is increasing interest in rigorous research designs to examine OST program outcomes. This issue of "Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots" reviews 27 quasi-experimental and experimental OST…

This report summarizes the presentations and discussion at a 1999 workshop entitled "Opportunities to Promote Child and Adolescent Development during the After-School Hours." This workshop brought together policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to examine research on the developmental needs of 5- to 14-year-olds and the types of…

High school is becoming the next frontier for after-school advocates. The conceptual and practical leaps from programming for elementary and middle school students to high school students are significant, with huge marketing challenges. Arguing persuasively for investments in this population requires revisiting almost every strategic decision,…