For many years, those who work in the mentoring field have wondered how they can extend the impact of their programs beyond the benefits experienced by young people they serve. There has been an increasing desire within our field to harness the power of mentoring to enable the youth served in a program to not just grow individually, but to…

In its diverse forms, authentic writing carries the potential to connect literacy practice to an author's 'real world'. While contemporary approaches to authentic writing instruction--advocating writer-centred, intertextual and culturally relevant productions--are most often explored in formal learning contexts like classrooms, this paper seeks to…

Adolescents face many difficulties when transitioning to high school, particularly when it comes to their social circles and maintaining friendships. As these challenges can have long-term consequences, providing support to youth during this period is essential. The YWCA Youth Education Programs (YEP) in Vancouver, BC offer group-based,…

This case study describes the "Reimagining Door 84" project, a participatory ethnographic research initiative conducted in collaboration with Door 84, a local youth and community center in York. Researchers from York St John University collaborated with young people, empowering them to design and implement their own research projects.…

The Young Olympians Program was developed to further a partnership between a university and the local Boys and Girls Club in central Illinois. The program was developed to improve youth participants' academic efficacy and social and emotional learning, while also engaging them in physical activity. This article shares the project-management stages…

This research delves into analyzing and comprehending humanistic attitudes within the management framework of the Youth Red Cross (PMR) organization at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri Palopo. Employing a qualitative approach, data is gathered through interviews, observations, and subsequent analysis. The study encompasses various stakeholders: the…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the experiences of newly resettled refugee-background high school students participating in the Teen Response program, a community-based initiative to assist refugee-background adolescents (RBAs) in navigating educational and career opportunities in the midwestern USA. Design/methodology/approach: Using a…

Since 1902, 4-H Youth Development programs have been implemented by Cooperative Extension agents or educators for teaching, influencing, and leading youth to new life skills that can positively impact their futures. The 4-H motto is "learn by doing" and is practiced with a hands-on learning approach. Unfortunately, during the COVID-19…

In this article we explore the work of two after-school programs in Toronto, Ontario. Our Youth Success (OYS) is a community-based mentoring program dedicated to lowering the push-out rates of students of Spanish and/or Portuguese-speaking descent. In the Youth Speak Program (YSP), community activists use spoken word poetry and rapping as a…

Assessing the effect mentors have on their mentees is methodologically challenging: most programs merely provide relatively short mentoring durations (typically in the range of 1 year), age ranges are usually rather small, and examining dyads with anything other than questionnaires has proven to be challenging in the past. Thus, although some…

The utilisation of non-formal educational methods has long been advocated as a means of supporting marginalised young people. For many in this cohort, the adverse social circumstances that confront them can limit their sense of hope and leave them susceptible to educational under-achievement and/or engagement in anti-social behaviour. Research…

Youth sport coaches have an incredibly complex and challenging role. The physical developmental changes that youth and adolescents go through can seemingly happen overnight. It is not surprising, therefore, that coaches spend most of their time thinking about how to help players with their physical skills. However, the significant developmental…

This article presents a national and international youth leadership program utilizing personal assessments as part of the pedagogy. Using the tenets of experiential learning, the learner's self-awareness heightens their experience as individuals make personal connections with the topic for deeper understanding. In addition to discussing the…

This paper presents the initial data from a larger project, considered through the lens of failure from the perspective of Halberstam's "The Queer Art of Failure" (2011) as a way of resisting hegemonic narratives about success and how it is culturally defined. As suggested by Halberstam's use of failure, the limitations or undesirable…

This dissertation examines a case of an international development initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the United States and implemented in North Macedonia. The specific initiative was a youth development program including a substantial career counseling component called the Macedonia Youth…