Kansas City YouthNet is taking on a leadership role in promoting community youth development (CYD). YouthNet's efforts to shift the measurement and evaluation focus from delivery of staff services to individual youth achievement is expected to lead to additional funds, a new CYD infrastructure, and improved lives of youth. (Author/JOW)

Over the past several years, increased interest in preventing youth problems and promoting healthy youth development has led youth and family practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to develop a wide range of approaches based on various theoretical frameworks. Although the growth in guiding frameworks has led to more complex models and a…

One of the major challenges facing youth workers today is the development of programs and services that are meaningful and relevant and that promote in young people a sense of responsibility for their learning and personal growth. In order to more adequately develop youth programming that will attract and challenge a greater portion of youths,…

All of today's young people need a rigorous academic program that prepares them for college and career success. But a growing body of research also suggests that low-income, high-risk teens who have opportunities to gain work experience and to connect education and work during high school are likely to do better in school and earn more throughout…

Given the number of negative influences on youth and the resultant potential for adverse outcomes, it is crucial to support their positive development. Leadership training programs can promote the development of adaptive intrapersonal qualities. The Teen Leadership Breakthrough (TLB) program claims to create sustainable changes in youth using…

Kansas City, Missouri, is one of six sites in a national demonstration project, Community Change for Youth Development (CCYD), which aims to increase basic developmental supports and opportunities available to youth age 12-20 years. The demonstration focuses on five basic elements: adult support and guidance, opportunities for involvement in…

Notes that the family support and positive youth development movements represent considerable change in both philosophical and programmatic approaches to the delivery of services. Examines the key elements and the relative success of family support and youth development practice, compares the two streams of literature and programming, and suggests…

Focuses on ways that adolescents discover their sexual identity and how individuals and programs can foster resilience in gay/lesbian youth and make a positive difference in their lives. Highlights strategies related to school environment, community resources, school resources, curriculum and organizational policies to implement at specific stages…

Youth recreation programming increasingly emphasizes developing resilience. Youth programmers could benefit from adopting therapeutic recreation (TR) practices. Theories of TR practice, and specific skills developed in TR professionals, can be integral to effective youth programming. Virginia's Fairfax County Department of Community Recreation…

Being asked to give the Charles H. McCloy research lecture is one of the highlights of the author's academic career. Although McCloy's primary area of expertise was measurement and the analysis of motor skills, he also shared an avid interest in youth development through sport and physical activity. In this article, the author features youth sport…

This study examined the sources of funds for nonprofit agencies which provide youth development services. It tapped multiple sources, including reports compiled about their affiliates' revenue by the national headquarters of youth-serving agencies; studies of seven communities conducted by The Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies…

Presents logical, theoretical, and empirical arguments for a new rehabilitative agenda for juvenile justice, based on positive principles of youth development. Offers critical examination of dominant intervention paradigms within juvenile justice, compares underlying assumptions of a competency-based rehabilitative model with deficit-based…

Puts the label "at risk" in perspective as it relates to youth. Points out that today's adolescents have lower rates of suicide, unwed pregnancy, drug abuse, smoking, and drunk driving than young and middle-aged adults. Suggests that extension youth education moves toward a condition-focused, resiliency model that recognizes the vitality and…

Youth development moves beyond risk reduction by turning a narrow negative focus on at-risk factors into positive action strategies. Critical components of youth development are providing positive ways for young people to meet their needs and building competencies. Physical, social, cognitive, vocational, and moral competence are described, and…

This study assesses if correspondence existed between concepts scholars use to discuss positive youth development (PYD) and terms used by practitioners, parents, and youth to discuss exemplary PYD, or thriving. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of 173 interviews about the meaning of thriving found no significant commonality between the terms…