Summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) are a workforce development strategy used around the country to provide early work experiences to young people each year. These programs partner with local employers to provide subsidized wages for young people between the ages of 14 and 24. The programs often include job-readiness training (which prepares…

Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) help connect youth to opportunities for career exploration, skill development, and mentorship. Despite heightened investment in SYEPs, research regarding positive impacts is limited. Most of the common SYEP evaluation strategies are rooted in deficit thinking and focus on outcomes such as reducing violent…

This article focused on findings of case study that explored the use of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" to supplement a service-learning project. The project was initiated in an academic orientation course as a part of a summer bridge program in order to foster a sense of belonging. Data from written reflections and a focus group centered…

Camp scholars have designed structured curricula to engender specific outcomes and to break down the "black box" of programming. Implementation evaluation explores how well a program operates when delivered, further breaking down the black box. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of a new structured camp…

The objective of this study was to develop a nonformal environmental education program in a summer camp and to measure its effectiveness increasing environmental knowledge and attitudes of the participants. Seventy six teenagers between 14 and 17 years participated. Activities dealt with both natural and urban environment. Preactivity and…

ThinkForward is a coaching programme, developed by Impetus Private Equity Foundation, which is designed to support secondary school pupils. ThinkForward is targeted at pupils who have been identified as being at high risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET) following the completion of compulsory education. Coaches are assigned…

This study reports changes in the positive psychology construct of hope resulting from adolescents' participation in a 6 week summer camp devoted to developing dance and psychosocial competence skills. Over 5 years, the inner-city camp participants were selected from substantial at-risk situations. Significant positive changes in overall hope were…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…

Describes the development and validation of a self-report instrument for measuring resiliency in youth for recreation and other social services, noting that the instrument is not yet ready for use under all conditions and that while use of structural equation modeling removes some subjectivity, results of this type of analysis are still left to…

Provides an overview of "Read on the Wild Side," a summer reading program for young adults established by the Webster (New York) Public Library, and "Read Hard, Play Later," a young adult summer reading program of the Pioneer Library System (New York). Highlights include reading logs, T-shirts, publicity, program evaluation,…

A two-year demonstration project, to determine whether a short-term (30 days) summer camp experience could contribute to prevention of juvenile delinquency, found that camping induced positive attitudinal change and improved adjustment to school. The project involved 200 adolescent boys from varied social backgrounds who were selected on evidence…

The Summer Youth Employment Program was designed to give at-risk youth educational opportunities and work experience during the summer. This paper gives an overview of the Program's operation in Pima County (Arizona). Test results are presented for 1,975 youth in the summer of 1996 and for 1,178 youths in 1997. Student progress was evaluated with…

Staff and graduate students from the University of Wisconsin conducted a 3-week workshop in environmental studies at Lac Courte Oreilles Community College for adolescent Native American students. Eleven girls and nine boys, aged 12-17, from six tribes enrolled in the program. Nineteen completed all 3 weeks. The curriculum covered such topics as…

Examines a two-week summer program using problem-based learning and behavior therapy to help adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes improve their ability to cope with obstacles to dietary management. Improvements were observed in self-efficacy, problem-solving skills, and self-reported coping strategies. No significant changes were observed…

Project ALERT was developed as an education for employment component of the Summer Youth Employment Program for the summer of 1983, and represents an effort designed to address several critical needs emanating from the high unemployment rate among economically disadvantaged young persons. Each of 200 participants spent two and one-half days per…