Attempts to determine research problems in the field of social work and to interpret them as a characteristic of that field. Stresses the double burden of pedagogics: to provide practical moral foundations and to provide reliable descriptions. Considers topics of major concern in research and practice in social work. (DSK)

Chicago's library and police partnership have created interactive programs for city youth. This article describes the partnership's Get Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs program, Mystery Beat Book Club, Ghosts in the Graveyard and other art programs and discusses benefits for the children and participating organizations. (PEN)

Presents a method of evaluating youth programs in accordance to a youth development agenda. Surveys of black adolescents regarding after-school and school-day experiences, and of students from other after-school programs, indicate that only some after-school programs provide more youth development opportunities and supports than school-day…

Describes and evaluates Youth Leadership Broward, a Leadership training program provided for approximately 50 outstanding Broward County (Florida) juniors each year. Funded primarily by business, YLB is an eight-month program of structured activities that increases participants' knowledge of current issues and community resources and helps develop…

Relates the development of the Kairos retreat at Georgetown Preparatory School and the positive responses and experiences of male youths who attended. States that the retreat experience invites youth to grapple with adolescent fears of loneliness, embrace an adult faith, and facilitate a new openness between teens and their families. (VWC)

A Michigan program gives juvenile first-offenders in alcohol, drug, or tobacco crimes the option of completing a youth diversion program at a local camp as an alternative to traditional juvenile justice. Considerations for the camp included board support, compatibility with camp philosophy, and staff competence. The program has lower recidivism…

The Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation attempts to join Freirean educational theory on contextual pedagogies with ancient Christian practices of the "ordo" toward the formation and theological education of Protestant Christian high school students. This article describes and reflects on the character and ultimately the success of this odd…

A powerful practical reclaiming strategy for youth at risk is to tap their potential for service to others. This counters a sense of learned helplessness. The term "learned helplessness" (Seligman, 1975) comes to mind when the author thinks about when she began working with troubled youth more than 20 years ago. Her and her co-workers often spoke…

Much has been written in recent years about the concept of empowerment, particularly as it relates to urban youth of color. The author agrees with Bemak et al.'s underlying premise that much of what is written about and practiced with respect to the empowerment of African American youth makes the assumption that counselors somehow empower young…

Many middle school and high school youth recognize the value of participating in organized activities outside school, yet too often they limit their involvement because of busy schedules and family lives, disinterest in existing activity choices, lack of motivation to attend organized activities or the lure of freedom or relaxation over structured…

In any assessment youth will only cooperate when they have a positive response to the adult seeking information. This article describes the components of a gender-sensitive needs assessment guide developed for youth workers to use in collaboration with youth. Young persons are seen as the best experts on their own lives.

Much has been written about the epistemological, theoretical and methodological bases of inclusive research, but how does it look in practice? This paper critically documents a participatory narrative approach to research with young people that, it is argued and demonstrated, foregrounds their agendas as critical researchers. The paper draws upon…

The fall of the Berlin Wall rocked the sociopolitical equilibrium of eastern and central Europe. Communism lost its grip over much of Europe. The USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia divided along ethnic, religious, and historical lines. Ethnopolitical tensions surfaced across the region, and in Yugoslavia, tensions combusted. Whereas democracy…

As practitioners and scholars working at a university-based training institute, the authors believe that adults working in youth development programs and helping youth gain an ethical understanding of the world must themselves adopt some principles of ethical practice and use them to practice three habits in their professional work: personal…

The goals of this study were to (a) assess the outcomes of former foster care youth using transitional living programs and (b) compare outcomes achieved by former foster care youth who participated in an employment training program with similar youth who did not. The study sampled 23 former foster care youth using transitional living services in…