This study explores the "Youth Leadership Experience" (YLE), (pseudonym) an afterschool experiential learning and leadership program for 9th and 10th-grade high school students from the midlands area of Columbia, SC. The study aims to identify and document the experiential learning and leadership practices at "Youth Leadership…

The future of the nation, and the future of world civilization, will soon rest in the hands of today's youth (Kleon & Rinhart, 1998). Youth organizations such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4-H provide lifelong leadership and life skills that youth of all ages will continue to use throughout their life. Leadership and positive youth…

The Idaho 4-H Teen Conference program provides youths with opportunities to develop leadership skills and confidence, explore options for after high school, and work with adults as partners. The conference has been modified to include subject matter and experiences that encourage teens to "go on" to postsecondary education. Recent…

Leadership education is a prominent component of youth programming. In their efforts to promote leadership development, most youth programs promote character development and teach interpersonal skills but fall short in teaching leadership because they fail to encourage the use of authority. In this paper, we present the stories of five late…

Youth engagement is the meaningful and sustained involvement of young people in efforts to create positive social change. This approach requires youth-serving organizations to rebalance traditional power dynamics between adults and young people, allowing youths to take on decision-making responsibilities. Collective impact initiatives such as…

This article describes research the authors undertook on why low income high school students invest in summer learning. They engaged participants in a community-based summer learning program to examine the factors that first attracted and then sustained their participation. They found that the elements that attracted students to the program were…

In October 2014, the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), and espnW co-founded "Sports 4 Life", a national grant program to increase participation and retention of African American and Hispanic girls in sports, especially in under-resourced communities. These grants are intended to help small and mid-size organizations in all 50 states…

As she reviewed participant feedback from the out-of-school time (OST) youth development program she managed at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library (N-YHS), the author was excited to recognize a pattern. Many of the teen participants wrote responses like "I am proud of what my team was able to accomplish" and "I…

Community change approaches have increasingly involved participatory practices in which community members directly impacted by an issue participate in implementing change efforts. However, community participation as a practice and approach does not always include youth participation. Within the field of youth organizing, young people are…

Youth organizing work benefits young people in myriad ways, equipping them with the skills and dispositions to organize around the systemic inequities and policy decisions that threaten their communities. The findings from this life histories study in the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) reveal that the organization's collectivist leadership model…

This evidence guide provides detailed research summaries on the effectiveness of specific afterschool programs for improving outcomes for students in grades K-12. The purpose of the guide is to present information that education agencies, afterschool providers, and others can use as they make decisions about afterschool programming. The guide is a…

This study represents a paradigm shift in an attempt to examine early adolescent self-concept while in a student leadership role. Positive Youth Development intertwined with Personal Construct Theory and Social Learning Theory framed the study. Students from a rural Wisconsin high school participated in a two-day leadership retreat. The…

The purpose of this publication is to provide guidance to Minnesota CareerForce youth development professionals on how to intentionally integrate the Guideposts for Success framework into the Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) model. Developed by PACER Center for Minnesota's Partners for Youth Disability Employment Initiative (DEI), this guide…

Young people have been hit especially hard by changes in the labor market over the past decades. Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds increased the most of any age group during the recent recession, and remains more than double that among older adults. The unemployment rate is especially high for young people without high school diplomas.…

Research evidence suggests that summer breaks contribute to income-based achievement and opportunity gaps for children and youth. However, summertime can also be used to provide programs that support an array of goals for children and youth, including improved academic achievement, physical health, mental health, social and emotional well-being,…