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…

Seven Circles is a substance abuse prevention coalition in Southeast Alaska with a two-tiered structure consisting of local partnerships joined together in a regional coalition. Describes the results of surveys designed to assess the development and implementation of youth/adult partnerships. Results support the youth/adult partnership model and…

Nicole and Matt are working together at Nexus, a group home, with six youth: Cathie, Maria, Ramon, Ron, Cheryl, and Nick. Nexus is a two-story house in the center of a medium-sized city. It is an older building that has been decorated and enlivened with the youth's art and music. Their story is presented in this article to illustrate how youthwork…

This article looks at the way in which the early (1907-1922) British Boy Scouts movement attempted to control sexuality through archival examination of the organization's preoccupation with preventing masturbation or, as it was generally referred to, "self abuse". Having briefly outlined the origination and nature of the Scouts, it considers why…

Many young people would benefit from having a mentor, but some out-of-school time programs face the challenge of recruiting mentors to meet the needs of these young people. This brief summarizes steps that programs can use to recruit mentors and recommends resources that can be used in this process. (Contains 38 endnotes.)

In 1972 the federal government created the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act that procured funding for various governmental programs to combat the sudden increase in juvenile crime. A provision of this Act set out the creation of mentoring programs to help decrease the juvenile crime rate and dropout rates in secondary schools. This…

In September 2005, the Toronto-based Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) examined Canada's income security system and presented proposals to improve the economic security of low-income, working-age adults. Former youth in care, with their poor outcomes and limited prospects for self-sufficiency as they…

This author argues that youth sports can move beyond the dichotomy of cooperation versus competition by redefining competition. This can be accomplished by considering the development of cooperative skills and achievement motivation. The article addresses how cooperative skills can be taught within a competitive sport. First, it is important to…

The Practice Notes section is intended to keep readers informed about health education practice around the country. It is an attempt to spread the word about exemplary strategies, initiatives, and programs and share successes in overcoming obstacles or challenges. Periodically, articles presenting perspectives on practice-related issues are also…

Middle school students' experiences at after-school programs were compared as they participated in different types of activities and with different social partners. The students (N = 165) attended eight programs in three Midwestern states. A total of 1,596 experiences were randomly sampled using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) during 1 week…

Most professions have wrestled with the problem of dual relationships, and the profession of youth work is no exception. Howard Sercombe holds that in order to understand how dual relationships can be avoided within youth work, it is necessary to be clear about what is involved in professional relationships. Sercombe also outlines policies that…

This article presents and discusses a 3-D online environment known as Teen Second Life. TSL is a virtual environment geared just for youth, ages 13-17. Its social appeal is huge, especially for teens who are developmentally inclined to seek out the company of their peers. In TSL one can meet friends or make new ones, hang out, listen to music and…

This paper presents evidence collected from an evaluatory study of the Kickstart program conducted by Australian Football League (AFL) Cape York in far North Queensland. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Kickstart program in meeting its overall objective of enhancing lifeskills of Indigenous Australians through…

There is a widespread belief that youth drop out of youth development programs during the middle school years. Alternative explanations for the smaller number of adolescent program participants have yet to be explored. We examine age trends in program enrollment using data from over 221,000 youth enrolled in the California 4-H Youth Development…

Formerly incarcerated adolescents with disabilities face additional barriers to a successful transition to adulthood when released from the youth correctional facility often with societal expectations of transitioning directly to adulthood. Employment and post-secondary enrollment may serve as protective factors and reduce the likelihood of future…