Promoting Positive Youth Development: The Miami Youth Development Project (YDP)

• NCJ Number: 222441
• Journal: Journal of Adolescent Research Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 256-267
• Author(s): William M. Kurtines; Laura Ferrer-Wreder; Steven L. Berman; Carolyn Cass Lorente; Earvin Briones; Marilyn J. Montgomery; Richard Albrecht; Arlen J. Garcia; Ondina Arrufat
• Date Published: May 2008
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For other articles in this issue, see NCJ-222439-40 and NCJ-222442-46.

Annotation

This article provides an overview of the 20-year history of the Miami Youth Development Project (YDP), a university-community effort to integrate research and interventions for troubled (multiproblem) youth, in order to produce knowledge and results in positive development among diverse youth in a multicultural society.

Abstract

The article focuses on one of the programs currently being developed by the Miami YDP, the Changing Lives Program (CLP), which targets multiproblem youth in alternative high schools. CLP began in the early 1990s at the Academy for Community Education, the first alternative public high school in Miami. The counseling services available to youth through the CLP include psychoeducational services, individual counseling, and counseling groups. The counseling groups focus on such issues as abuse, anger management, alternative lifestyles, relationships, self-esteem, substance use/abuse, teen parenting, and troubled families. CLP's overarching strategy is to assist youth in their efforts to change the systems/contexts that have a negative impact on their lives. CLP counseling services provided through the Miami YDP are currently available to all of the Miami-Dade County voluntary alternative high schools. Counseling services are provided on site in these schools. The partnership that provides the knowledge, personnel, and financial resources for the YDP and CLP includes the Psychology Department of Florida International University; Community in Schools, a private, nonprofit, community-based organization that delivers community resources to schools in cooperation with school staff, families, and community leaders; the Miami-Dade County Public Schools; the Positive Development Association, a nonprofit, grassroots organization based in Miami that promotes positive youth development; and the students in alternative high schools where the CLP is offered. 13 references