As the need for providing youth with positive, constructive, and supervised after-school opportunities is increasingly recognized, advocates and policymakers face the challenge of funding quality, affordable, accessible youth development programs that meet the needs of working families and enrich learning and social development for youth.…

The purpose of this paper is to encourage state and local family and youth organizations, mental health agencies, education entities and schools across the nation to enter new relationships to achieve positive social, emotional and educational outcomes for every child. This paper offers recommendations and encouragement to family and youth…

Strategies to concentrate resources on high-risk youth have long been a goal in the youth field, but the practical means of doing so frequently have eluded practitioners. High-risk youth often are highly transient, and they may need sustained, costly services to address their needs effectively. Guides for the Journey explores a concrete, flexible…

Inspired by the 2004 Kids Count Databook essay, "Moving Youth From Risk to Opportunity," this new report highlights the history of data collection, challenges and innovative strategies of 12 Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT grantees in their work to serve the needs of older youth. (Contains 3 figures, 2 tables, and 9 notes.)

What is needed to strengthen youth policy in the states? In this Research and Policy Report, co-authored by the Forum for Youth Investment and the National Conference of State Legislatures, learn concrete ways that states are addressing key challenges to creating better aligned and more effective youth policy. (Contains 26 notes and 2 figures.)

Over the past year, dozens of articles have been published about excessive youth borrowing and spending (leading to high amounts of debt), new reactions to negative body image (such as plastic surgery), as well as more familiar risks like premarital sex and smoking. In Forum Focus: Revisiting Risk in the 21st Century, we explore these challenges…

Experiments in using outdoor education to affect juvenile development and deter crime abound. Most of these outdoor adventure programs use a setting of developed challenges and perceived risk situations in order to create a life-changing experience. However, these "adventures" remain contrived events and require significant interpretive…

This videotape presents the National Satellite Videoconference on mentoring for youth. The video opens with a discussion of mentoring and presents panelists who make statements about mentoring and youth programs and respond to questions called in by videoconference participants at approximately 500 downlinked sites. Panelists were: (1) Shay…

This manual for trainers of new mentors offers activities for 2 workshops that together add up to between 5-6 hours of training. The activities are intended for preservice training and designed to help participants: understand their role as mentors; develop necessary skills and attitudes; understand the concept of positive youth development; learn…

This digest examines the positive effects on emotional well-being of several types of outdoor education programs. Although many outdoor education and experiential programs enhance emotional growth, such "therapeutic" outcomes may be considered incidental to program goals. In contrast, programs aimed primarily at "therapy"…

This publication presents an overview of adolescent pregnancy, including national and state statistical information; funding sources for teen pregnancy prevention programs; examples of the effects of teen pregnancy prevention on society; illustrations of teenagers' perspectives on the issue; recent developments and initiatives in the arena of teen…

The greatest support offered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for youth mentoring has been through the Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP), which provides one-to-one mentoring for youth at risk of delinquency, gang involvement, educational failure, or dropping out of school. Information on JUMP has been collected through…

This report describes the economics of programs working to reduce crime in Washington State. For a variety of approaches, from prevention programs designed for young children to correctional interventions for juvenile and adult offenders, it systematically analyzes North American research studies from the past 25 years. For this review, the…

Outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH) is an emerging mental health intervention/treatment to help adolescents overcome emotional, psychological, and addiction problems. Currently, over 100 OBH programs in the United States use elements of wilderness therapy to address adolescents' problem behaviors and foster responsibility and personal growth.…

The mentoring of youth by adults has been identified as one of the more promising program approaches to promoting positive youth outcomes. This synthesis examines the role that mentoring plays in helping youth develop a broad array of strengths and capacities related to: (1) education and cognitive attainment; (2) health and safety; (3) social and…