Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being. In recent years, virtual mentoring has emerged as a promising way to expand the provision of mentoring. By engaging virtually, mentorship programs can…

Experiential learning has been used to inform programming and practices in a wide variety of contexts such as adventure therapy and outdoor education. Furthermore, experiential learning has been used to explain the learning process of individuals, groups, and teams. Its relationship with the context of youth sport, however, has yet to be fully…

The 4-H Volunteer Continuing Education Academy was developed to provide 4-H club leaders a continuing education opportunity, to assist them in developing and enhancing the skills and knowledge necessary for their volunteer role, and to provide a means for 4-H livestock and horse club leaders to recertify. All participants reported satisfaction…

This resource guide is for financial institutions interested in enhancing financial capability through partnerships with youth employment programs. It maps out how and why financial institutions can help young people achieve greater financial well-being and employment success. This document highlights youth employment programs funded under the…

The author explores the experiences of adolescent youths (ages 13-21) through their participation in the Youth Writing Collective (YWC), a free creative writing program sponsored by the local university. For one week, youths attended YWC workshops, where they were invited to write, share, and perform stories from their lived realities. Situated in…

Research on retention in the 4-H youth development program has consistently shown that one of the primary indicators for youths' dropping out of 4-H is being a first-year member. Extension 4-H professionals from California, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Jersey formed a team to study this issue. Our team surveyed first-year members and their…

For many youth, afterschool programs positively fill the time between school and home. Quality out-of-school time (OST) programs clearly can have beneficial social and academic effects on youth (Durlak, Weissberg, & Pachan, 2010; Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Hunt, 2003; Vandell et al., 2005). However, these outcomes are not guaranteed (Chen…

Social justice--oriented evaluation approaches are described as participatory, culturally and contextually responsive, and self-empowering. These evaluation approaches call for the genuine participation of stakeholders for sound evaluations, particularly those outside of decision-making and service providing. Similarly, hip-hop is commonly…

The international community has set forth global targets that include calls for universal access to high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), as indicated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. One major impediment to achieving this target is the lack of a skilled workforce. In this paper, we argue the case for…

The driving force of California's growing innovation economy is talent. However, there is also a growing mismatch between the type of talent in demand and the type of talent in supply. This paper describes why one of California's best options for closing this talent gap is to expand and modernize the State's apprenticeship system. [Additional…

The lack of basic financial knowledge and skills among youth today is of national concern. American high school students routinely fail tests that evaluate their financial knowledge and are ill-prepared to face important decisions about borrowing, saving, investing, and planning for their financial futures. The consequences of these low levels of…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess volunteer involvement in school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs. An electronic survey (based on Seevers and Rosencrans, 2001) was sent to a census of SBAE instructors in three states. Attitudes of involving volunteers was positive although there were some roles SBAE participants'…

Interest in both the objective dimension and the subjective dimension of summer camp experiences has grown among camp scholars. As a building block for understanding subjective elements of summer camp experiences, discrete defining moments may provide insights into linkages between what program providers deliver and the experiences that youth…

The goal of this American Association of School Administrators (AASA) youth apprenticeship toolkit is to encourage the creation of school and business partnerships as a viable and expansive pathway to success in school, career and work. This toolkit provides resources for secondary and community college administrators to advocate for and build…

Kids Creative is a New York City nonprofit that runs afterschool and summer programs with over 1,000 youth each year. The programs they run use this creativity-oriented process to produce original musicals, works of art, videos, dances, and more. When Kids Creative received grant funding, they were able to include more youth and add homework help,…