NCJ Number
174343
Date Published
1997
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This document explains Indiana's experience with the Youth as Resources (YAR) program in its largest juvenile correctional facilities and presents guidelines to aid the staff of other juvenile correctional institutions, day treatment facilities, and other settings in establishing a YAR program.
Abstract
The National Crime Prevention Council initiated the Youth as Resources program in Indiana in 1991 to balance positive youth development with safe, structured community reintegration strategies in a cost-effective way. YAR has been tested in Indiana for the past 6 years and validated by independent evaluations. The program is simple, replicable, inexpensive, and easily shaped to evolving institutional needs. YAR asks youth to identify a community problem about which they are concerned, design a project to address the need, and take the lead with caring adult supporters in working on the solution. It differs from traditional community service models or therapeutic counseling programs in that it rests on the view that youth are resources who can make significant improvements in community. Youth have leading roles rather than supporting roles. YAR makes small grants to young people to design and carry out their projects. YAR programs are governed by local boards of youth and adults. Youth develop YAR projects in classrooms, neighborhood centers, youth clubs, religious institutions, and correctional facilities and address social issues ranging from health and education to drug abuse, gangs, illiteracy, and crime. Most YAR programs are communitywide and open to all youth in the geographic area, whether they reside in the community or in a correctional facility. The Indiana experience strongly suggests that YAR has potential for youth in other correctional systems and is not confined to certain types of correctional organizations. Project descriptions, checklists, photographs, footnotes, and list of publications and videos