In this report, the author shares her perspective on ten years of science-rich programming for high school youth at the American Museum of Natural History. This report includes: (1) A discussion of the theory of action and the rationale that underlies the AMNH youth programs; (2) A description of three of the programs that have been offered and…

Out-of-school time programs provide intervention and prevention services to young people who are deemed "at-risk" with the goal of improving their social, emotional, and academic development. However, research indicates that children and youth who are most "at-risk" are less likely to participate in out-of-school time programs, and do so less…

This report presents the findings of an analysis of the new or updated Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) published in 2007. The documents analysed, known variously as plans, reviews or refreshes, are collectively referred to throughout the report as CYPPs. Attendees at the Planning for Excellence (PFE) network workshops suggested that…

Active parental consent policies have been blamed for low participation rates and selection bias (i.e., loss of "high-risk" youths) in school-based studies. In this article, the authors describe active consent procedures that produced an overall active consent rate of 79% in a sample of more than 4,500 middle school students attending 29…

The agonistic approach--aimed at embracing opposing perspectives as part of a qualitative research process and acknowledging that process as fundamentally political--sheds light on both the construction of and the resistance to research identities. This approach involves reflexively embedding interview situations into the ethnographic context as a…

Empowering youth through the exploration of their possible futures is a fresh and innovative approach to the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model (TPSR). The purpose of this study was to examine the combination of TPSR with the theory of possible selves. This combination, called the Career Club, was a program specifically designed to…

This publication is part of a series of tools and resources on financing and sustaining youth programming. These tools and resources are intended to assist policy makers, program developers and community leaders in developing innovative strategies for implementing, financing and sustaining effective programs and policies. This brief highlights six…

The Search Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, defines developmental assets as good things everyone needs to be happy in life, such as a supportive family, a caring neighborhood, integrity, self-esteem, resistance skills, conflict resolution skills, constructive activities and a sense of purpose. "A…

Although in the past the field of youth development has been subsumed within or occluded by other traditional development sectors such as education, a re-emerging emphasis on security in US government foreign assistance has tended to foreground youth as a frame of reference for international development programming and public diplomacy. While…

The past two decades have seen remarkable advances in the manner in which youth are transitioned out of the foster care system. The most significant progress is in the way that the child welfare system relates to the youth it serves. This article provides a contextual framework for the advances in child welfare's preparation of youth for…

The key importance of after-school and out-of-school time in a democratic society is the experience of activities and programs providing a common ground that extends the play of childhood into leadership opportunities for youthful learning and exploration of the world. The authors hypothesize that by focusing civic attention on the developmental…

Through a collaboration with a public school in a poor, urban, largely Latino neighborhood, a multisystemic program was designed to foster positive youth development and promote school success. Aspects of the program highlighted include (a) the rationale; (b) interventions developed with and for youth, their parents, and their teachers; (c) the…

This study compared perceptions of personal and leadership life skills development of high school 4-H leadership activity participants by whether they participated in the 4-H Junior Leader Club (JLC) and/or the CHARACTER COUNTS! (CC) peer teaching program. The target population was all high school students who participated in either the CC or JLC…

Background: Great efforts are made to develop and implement contact activities for groups in conflict, yet studies of effects of planned contact interventions yielded mixed results. Previous attempts to explain why contact interventions do not fulfill their promise focused on the contact itself. However, the main focus of the present study was the…

This guidebook is designed to provide advice from the field to communities interested in pursuing more formal connections--or strengthening existing connections--between the workforce and justice systems. It focuses on specific challenges and how selected communities addressed them. The information was gathered via two surveys and site visits. The…