Youth Development

1. Youth Development Chapters 1 & 6

2. Youth Development: Chapter 1

3. SOPS • Supports (main actor: the provider) • Opportunities (main actor: the individual) • Services (and Programs) (main actor the provider)

5. 10 Principles of Youth Development • Understand that young people are assets in the making and not just problems to be fixed. • Move beyond deficit-based models (addressing on the problem behaviors) to models that focus on developing youth capabilities (assets). • Base the provision of SOPS on a vision of fully functioning and capable adult. • Move beyond thinking in terms of either/or. • Focus on developing a wide range of knowledge, skills, and behaviors.

6. 10 Principles of Youth Development • Involve adults from the family and community in fostering youth development. • Support youth in being essential players in their own development. • Design youth development supports, opportunities, and programs deliberately. • Bring programs to scale. • Sustain supports and opportunities over time.

7. 1. Understand that young people are assets in the making & not just problems to be fixed. • How do we change society’s basic attitudes about young people? • 1st challenge – see youth as assets, not liabilities • Key depends on a range of SOPS from: • Families • Communities • Others ?? • Working from a positive perspective is essential!

8. 2. Move beyond deficit-based models to models that focus on developing youth capabilities. • Explain what America’s Promise entails. • Why is keeping America’s Promise (2003) critical to positive youth development? • Developmental Assets model (40 assets; 20 internal and 20 external)

9. Developmental Assets model • 4 areas that make up the 20 external assets • (home, school, or community attributes that provide supports & opportunities): • Support from family, neighbors, schools, and other adults • Actions to empower youth • Establishment of boundaries and expectations • Provision of opportunities for the constructive use of time

10. Developmental Assets model • 4 areas that make up the 20 internal assets • (attitudes and behaviors that are necessary for youth to grow up to navigate their adolescent years and function successfully as adults): • Making a commitment to learning • Developing positive valu3es • Developing social competencies • Creating a positive identity

12. Developmental Assets model • Studies show: • 0 to 10 of the 40 assets: 49 % more likely to engage in problem alcohol use, drug use, violence, and sexual activity as opposed to only 3% who have 31 to 40 assets. • 47% with 31 to 40 assets are likely to succeed in school while only 8% with 0 – 10 assets will succeed. • What does this mean? • The more assets the more likely youth are to become positively adjusted adolescents and productive adults.

14. 3. Vision of a Fully Functioning Adult • Must be given a fair chance to develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills, & behaviors that will make the transition to adulthood possible (Furstenbuerg, 1999) • Three main ideals to indicate this successful transition: • To find rewarding and remunerative employment • To form a lasting and gratifying partnership • To become contributors in their communities • Must educate to highest potential to foster positive identity, personal sense of well-being & self-efficacy, and develop habits of good citizenship • Must move beyond simply supplying “fun and games”

15. 4. Move Beyond Either/Or. • We can no longer decide to be “ problem free” OR “fully prepared” • WE MUST DO BOTH: the AND APPROACH • How?

16. 5. Develop a Wide Range of Knowledge, Skills, & Behaviors • Can’t just focus on education • Also need: vocational, physical, emotional, civic, social, cultural, and spiritual competencies. • These competencies helps youth deal with three crucial challenges faced in adolescent years (Erickson): • The task of industry – learning to be productive & to contribute • The task of identity – learning who you are & where you fit • The task of intimacy – learning how to be with others and finding a life partner • Also need to learn to self regulate actions & emotions

17. 6. Involve adults from the family & community • Key to adult involvement in youth development is for them to provide youth with the “scaffolding” necessary to enable growth and development (Pittman et al, 2000) • What does this mean? • What role does Reliability….. Being there, keeping promises…..play?

18. 7. Support Youth • Involve youth in the development of SOPS – critical! • Youth involvement and self-determination are keys to developing supports and opportunities. • Thus, provide opportunities to: • Participate in rule making, governance, and leadership • Form enduring, durable relationships with peers • Feel a sense of belonging and being valued • Make a contribution to the community • Don’t do everything “for” them, plan “with” them • What are some of the problems caused by adult overregulation of the behavior of youth? • How can we plan “with” them? • “Foster Involvement” p. 18

19. 8. Youth development by design • Move away from just “fun & games” to deliberate approaches that emphasize planning and leading on an intentional basis – “intentional programming” • Utilize comprehensive planning model – one that moves from assessing needs, to setting goals, to developing programs to meet goals, to assessing whether goals have been met. • Program elements that need to be offered or created: • A sense of safety • Challenging & interesting activities • A sense of belonging • Supportive relationships with adults • Involvement in decision making • Opportunities for leadership • Involvement in community

20. 10 basic elements that characterize quality youth programs

21. 9. Bring programs to scale. • Careful to not just focus on one group of youth….all youth can benefit! • Find ways to offer a critical mass of services to a critical mass of young people!

22. 10. Sustainability • Short-term programs….just do not have long impact! • Reasons to avoid one-shot or short term programs: • Achieving quality in the first year or so can be difficult • Youth development is ongoing and takes time to accomplish – continued involvement is needed • Almost impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term programs to achieve longer term objectives • To be most effective” • Efforts must begin early, be sustained throughout the adolescent years, and allow for skill development through participation in various levels of challenge. • Programs must be comprehensive, addressing many aspects of youth development. • Need to develop a system of services that are ongoing & inclusive of the variety of services necessary to meet youth’s needs.

23. Youth Development: Chapter 6 Theories

24. Learning Theory: Teaching & Shaping (Skinner & Bandura) • Key “reinforcements” the teacher or trainer uses to shape behavior. • Rewards are much more effective than punishment in shaping behavior • Progressive reinforcement along a sequence of steps permits the shaping of complex patterns of behavior • Teacher has to be alert that undesired behavior is not getting reinforced. • Important in youth development because it helps us think about what rewards youth are getting and the influence of these rewards. • Shortcoming: risk of undercutting youth’s ownership of the learning process.

25. Constructivist Theory: Youth as Producers of Their Own Development (Piaget) • Learning on your own….youth are motivated to learn. • Piaget says youth “construct” concepts through the process of active experimentation and reasoning. • Peer to peer interactions provide the most fruitful context for development of concepts about group processes & morality. • Constructivist theories help us to think about the powerful natural tendencies of youth to develop and to organize their experiences into understanding. • Shortcoming: when learning is turned entirely over to youth they may founder and spin their whells

26. Collaborative Learning: Guided Participation (Vygotsky) • Vygotsky saw learning as coming from interactions between a child & other people. (shared interaction) • Creative scaffolding • When to intervene and when to stand back?

27. Relationship Theories: Caring connections as a Base for Development • See close relationships with caring adults as essential to human development. • Stability important from birth • Relationships that help child deal with drives and feeling. This caring relationship helps them feel secure to take on new challenges. • So, what happens if children do not get this? • Adults play an important indirect role in creating a psychologically safe environment that facilitates youth to engage in positive development.

28. Sociological Theories: Learning Norms & Acquiring Social Capital • Development is the process so f coming to take your place within social groups and society. • Learning the general rules, meanings and ways of acting • Developing social identity • Where do norms come from? • Do youth automatically follow norms? • Learning AND forming relationships of exchange • To successfully enter society we need competencies AND social network!

29. Theories as Tools • Which theory is the “right one”? • What is the purpose of developmental theory? • Common theme across these theories (except early learning theory)?