BOCYF Projects

Youth Development

Publications: Youth Development and Neighborhood Influences: Challenges and Opportunities: Summary of a Workshop (1996)

At the request of the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened a Committee on Youth Development to focus attention on what is known about environments that foster or inhibit successful outcomes for adolescent youth in urban high-risk settings. The review was intended to supplement the efforts initiated by a broad range of community-based programs to enable parents and community residents to increase their capabilities to nurture young people.

The committee convened a planning meeting in January 1996 to review the youth development research literature. The meeting participants included research scientists, individuals involved in the development of community-based youth initiatives, and representatives of public and private agencies that support such efforts.

The committee prepared a report of the meeting, Youth Development and Neighborhood Influences: Challenges and Opportunities: Summary of a Workshop, that examines how the research base can contribute to the development of different types of youth-oriented initiatives, particularly comprehensive, community-wide programs designed to improve the lives of youth in low-income neighborhoods. As part of their deliberations, committee members explored alternative methods by which the knowledge and experience of experts concerned with youth development can be made more accessible to service providers and community leaders who are increasingly responsible for developing youth programs and services. The committee also examined how such exchanges involving scientists, community leaders, and program funders might be sustained to continue the dialogue initiated in the planning meeting.

This topic is also being covered in a series of workshops being held by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and its Forum on Adolescence, entitled "Community Programs to Promote Youth Development."