The series Investing in Youth builds on the expertise of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on youth employment, social support and skills. It covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies. This report provides a detailed diagnosis of the youth…

Educational attainment and early work experience provide a crucial foundation for future success. However, many young adults are disconnected from both school and the job market. Neglecting these young people can exact a heavy toll on not only the individuals but also society as a whole, for example, through lost productivity and tax…

There is currently a lack of theoretically based research regarding positive youth development (PYD) and youth in recreational sport settings, including residential summer sport camps. This qualitative research study explored the ways in which positive developmental experiences are facilitated at a residential summer sport camp. Using a case study…

Youth councils are examined as spaces of citizenship education where young people are educated as political subjects. At a time of political and economic instability data were collected in a Catalan city through tests and focus groups involving 112 students, three teachers and two youth council managers during one academic year. Students'…

In this article we expand on ideas of making and maker spaces to develop Indigenous making and sharing. We draw from an ArtScience participatory design project that involved Indigenous youth, families, community artists, and scientists in a summer Indigenous STEAM program designed to cultivate social and ecologically just nature-culture relations…

How can afterschool programs engage middle school students of color as they enter their teenage years? The authors asked this question while working with the Bridge Project, a drop-in community-based academic enrichment program serving low-income children and adolescents of color living in public housing in Denver, Colorado. Faced with dwindling…

Taking a comprehensive approach to wellness--which includes healthy eating and physical activity and extends to additional aspects of health, such as social and emotional skills and competencies--can provide the necessary supports to help healthy children grow into healthy adults. Afterschool and summer learning programs are well-situated to be an…

Do members participating in the Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP) apply knowledge gained by implementing wildlife management practices at the local level? 4-H members who participated in the National WHEP Contest from 2003-2005 and 2007-2011 completed an evaluation at the end of each contest. The evaluation asked participants if they…

The purpose of Russell and Limle's (2013) study was to determine whether youth-sport specialization and retrospective recall of youth-sport experiences were related to participants' perceptions of and participation in sport and physical activity as young adults. A significant number of participants (76 percent) reported specializing in…

In this article I bring artistic production into the learning sciences conversation by using the production of representations as a bridging concept between art making and the new literacies. Through case studies with 4 youth media arts organizations across the United States I ask how organizations structure the process of producing…

Youth mentoring programs have been on the rise for the past few decades, yet little has been done to synthesize best practices, as identified in existing research, for programs or mentors to follow. In a review of the literature on mentoring, eight different types of mentoring relationships were identified along with four program best practices…

Knowledges from academic and professional research-based institutions have long been valued over the organic intellectualism of those who are most affected by educational and social inequities. In contrast, participatory action research (PAR) projects are collective investigations that rely on indigenous knowledge, combined with the desire to take…

Background: The YMCA of USA has adopted Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) Standards for its afterschool programs (ASPs). Little is known about strategies YMCA ASPs are implementing to achieve Standards and these strategies' effectiveness. Aims: (1) Identify strategies implemented in YMCA ASPs and (2) evaluate the relationship between…

This study examined the incidence of reading impairments, the reading profiles, and the outcomes of a reading intervention for youth involved in a comprehensive crime prevention program. Rates of reading impairments were between 55% and 61%. Reading profiles for participants with reading comprehension impairments showed deficits in phonological…

This article expands the discussion on youth activism, arguing for a new materialist conception of youthspaces. Centering this article around the concept of youthspaces, a term that refers to the agency, relationality and resistance engendered in youthspaces, the article urges that a new materialist understanding of youthspaces and youth studies,…