NCJ Number
174341
Date Published
1996
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This manual is intended to assist youth services professionals in thinking about how they can help communities shift from a problem-focused approach to serving youth to a youth development approach based on a community-youth involvement model that uses the talents and abilities of every youth to create access to opportunity for all youth.
Abstract
The youth development approach focuses on young people's strengths rather than their failings. It emphasizes that the four ingredients necessary for youth to develop in a positive way are a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, and a sense of power. Youth need a sense of personal safety, structure, a sense of belonging or membership, a sense of self-worth that is predicated on achievement and character, mastery of skills, access to learning opportunities beyond the classroom, responsibility, spirituality, self-awareness, and support and guidance from caring adults. Strong leadership is a crucial element for organizations implementing a youth development approach, within both the agency and the broader community. Creating youth development programs requires collaborative planning by a community's youth-serving agencies, other social services and educational institutions, policy makers, community leaders, and youth. Recommendations and checklists, appended assessment questionnaires for leaders and organizations, list of youth development publications, and 6 references