NDYD - New Directions in Youth Development

Drawing on the global research and field-building efforts of Search Institute s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, this volume frames a new, deeper dialogue about the intersections between youth development and spiritual development. Contributors explore ways to integrate spiritual development and youth development in order to strengthen theory, research, and practice. They ask:

1. How do young people develop their deepest, fundamental commitments?
2. How do they find their place in their family, community, world, and universe?
3. How do they come to terms with issues of meaning, purpose, and identity beyond themselves?

These are, at their core, spiritual development questions. They are also critical issues in adolescent development. They are the wellspring of some of the best within young people and humanity, and the source of some of the greatest atrocities in society when the answers lead to alienation, hatred, or violence.

The past decade has seen an explosion in interest in spiritual development within youth development and related fields. National youth-serving systems are beginning to ask how they can effectively address these questions in a society that has become increasingly diverse and pluralistic. And the growth of positive, community-based youth development provides a platform for examining these issues within the context of an overall commitment to healthy, holistic development among all young people. This volume is a valuable addition to the field.

No. 117: Community Organizing and Youth Advocacy
Sarah Deschenes, Milbrey McLaughlin, Anne Newman (Editors)

This issue presents new thinking about the ways in which youth and parents are engaged in local reform, particular education reform, with the help of community organizations. Community groups examined in this volume advocate for and with youth in a variety of ways: through youth organizing, parent organizing, more traditional youth advocacy, and funding support. These organizations are critical in promoting youth's healthy development. They lobby to change policy and service delivery, connect diverse institutions that serve youth, push for more resources for youth, educate local officials about youth's needs, and empower parents and youth to become advocates in their own right. Tehre is a ripple effect in these local efforts; not only do policies and political contexts change, but individual and communities themselves begin to change too. And although there are significant barriers to changing entrenched ideas about youth and their needs, the efforts discussed in these articles are having tangible results in many urban areas.

No. 116: Afterschool Around the Globe: Policy, Practices, and Youth Voice
Jen Hilmer Capece, Andrew Schneider-Munoz, Bonnie Politz (Editors)

Afterschool presents in a variety of forms across the globe. This developmental time, variously referred to as afterschool, out-of-school-time, or free time, can range from workforce preparation for twenty-year-olds in South Africa to safe spaces and healthy activities for eight-year-olds in New Zealand.

The global contributors to this issue share knowledge and commitment to effective afterschool efforts. They focus on meaningful youth participation in a wide variety of venues and settings. Building global citizens, giving youth an economic edge, and combining self-interest and learning are some of the underlying outcomes described throughout this volume. It draws out lessons learned across cultural and geographical borders and addresses significant policies and quality standards.

This is the 116th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Youth Development, sponsored by the National AfterSchool Association.

No. 115: Sports-Based Youth Development
Daniel F. Perkins, Suzanne Le Menestrel (Editors)

Over 40 million youth participate in organized sports, and playing some sort of sport as a youth has become an American tradition. Boys and girls have a wide array of choices and become engaged in sports for a variety of reasons. The focus of this volume is organized youth sports programs that occur during the out-of-school-time hours, in particular, programs that emphasize youth development outcomes.

The articles review the benefits of participation in youth sports programs, including health in general, with attention focused on innovative and unique sports-based youth development programs that are cropping up across the country. Other themes are how to better integrate youth sports programs with more traditional afterschool programs and how to redefine competition in youth sports programs. Authors introduce the term "sports-based youth development programs" and provide examples of successful programs that use a particular sport to facilitate learning and life skill development.

This volume also looks at several youth sports intermediary organizations focused on youth development and how these organizations are providing technical assistance, training, and financial support to youth sports programs around the country and the rest of the world.

No. 114 Summertime: Confronting Risks, Exploring Solutions
Ron Fairchild, Gil G. Noam (Editors)

This issue explores the impact of the summer when the regular school year ends and public support for children declines, on young people. On average, students achievement test scores are about one month lower when they return to school on the fall than when they left in the spring, according to a research synthesis. This decline in knowledge, known as summer learning loss, is typically more pronounced for math than for reading. Contributors to this issue examine the research on potential risks youth face during the summer, such as regressing on measures of knowledge and health. Communities across the country can learn from promising and innovative practices for what has been one of the most persistent, but often ignored, youth policy challenges in the United States. The chapter authors describe young people s summer growth potential and explore community-based solutions to address the need for all young people to have opportunities for learning and positive development over the summer months. Organizations, agencies, and individuals can and must work together strategically to ensure that all young people return to school in the fall ready to learn.

No. 113: Transition or Eviction: Youth Exiting Care for Independent Living
Varda R. Mann-Feder (Editor)

The transition from care to independent living has become a recent focus for research given the poor outcomes that have been documented to date. This issue will present multiple perspectives on this problematic issue, examining outcomes and offering a critique of traditional approaches while at the same time outlining promising developments in programming both in the United States and internationally. Practices that build competence will be highlighted, given the need to prepare these youth for successful transitions into independent living.It has been well established that significant numbers of youth who age out of foster homes, group homes, and residential facilities and leave to live on their own are overrepresented in adult psychiatric facilities, prisons, and among the homeless. In addition, most suffer from poor health, do not finish school, and have difficulty securing gainful employment. Most problematic is that little is understood about how to intervene with this disadvantaged population in its transition to adulthood. It is clear that attaining age of majority has little to do with maturity, yet the reality remains that the care system must graduate these young people, many of whom have nowhere to go but on their own. This volume represents a valuable step forward in acknowledging the current situation and offering effective ways to meet the challenges of the future.

No. 112: Rethinking Programs for Youth in the Middle Years
Dale A. Blyth, Joyce A. Walker (Editors)

Sponsored by the National AfterSchool Association, this issue is dedicated to the essential importance of learning and development in the nonschool hours and the need for a community commitment to support and fund these opportunities on behalf of youth today and community leadership in the future.Rethinking out-of-school learning opportunities in ways that better meet the developmental needs of early adolescents, the editors utilize their own recent experiences creating and leading a statewide effort to support community-based and school-linked nonformal learning opportunities for youth. Themes of intentionality, quality, engagement, and youth voice are illustrated with clear lessons learned in the field. The critical issue of the community role and responsibility to provide these opportunities for our nation's youth is fully illuminated. From how to frame an understanding of their experiences to increasing intentionality in their design, the contributors to this issue explore and young people's journeys into community during their non-school hours.

No. 111: Preparing Youth for the Crossing From Adolescence to Early Adulthood
Sam Phia, Georgia Hall(Editors)

This volume examines how developmental issues facing older youth impact their crossover into early adulthood, and investigates innovative strategies being employed to better meet the needs of these youth. Implications for policymakers and funders in taking the support of older youth to scale are also considered in this volume.There is a growing concern that young people are reaching the age of eighteen unprepared for the primary challenge of young adulthood: successfully joining the workforce or continuing on to higher education or vocational training. In order to see outcomes improve for older youth, especially low-income youth of color, we must have a better understanding of their developmental needs in order to create supported pathways for their eventual transition to adulthood. This will require new policies to improve coordination at the systems level and increased attention to expanding their access to supportive institutions and services.

No. 110: The Case for 21st Century Learning
Eric Schwarz, Ken Kay (Editors)

What skills and attributes will allow young people to succeed in the new global economy? This volume addresses the question by examining the topic of twenty-first century learning.Twenty-first century learning frames an increasingly relevant and vital national conversation about what young people need in order to achieve: critical thinking, problem-solving, innovation, and communication skills.The chapters in this volume provide a broad scope of perspectives - from business leaders, educators, researchers, youth workers, and students - on the need, opportunity, application, and outcomes of twenty-first century learning. The twenty-first century calls us to reimagine the learning day-building partnerships that engage schools, after-school programs, businesses, and community-based organizations - and to embrace both traditional academic basics as well as small-group and project-based learning. This volume provides the most comprehensive review to date of this important topic.

No. 109: Youth Leadership
Max Klau, Steve Boyd, Lynn Luckow (Editors)

As academics and professionals working with youth pursue a focus on positive psychology and youth development, the topic of youth leadership represents an intriguing frontier of inquiry. The notion of leadership moves beyond mere resilience; it implies an exceptional level of competency and self-mastery and an ability to influence oth-ers. Yet despite its relevance, the topic remains largely unexplored. The minimal amount of scholarly literature related to the topic barely scratches the surface and does not provide definitive answers to questions such as What exactly is youth leadership? Is it different from adult leadership? How does it relate to productive youth development? Can it be taught? If so, what are best and worst practices? This edition of New Directions for Youth Development brings together scholars and practitioners with decades of involvement in youth leadership edu-cation. Our intention is to bring a new level of focus, rigor, and insight to this important discussion. While this volume provides no simple answers, it does crystallize a collection of issues and debates that are central to the discourse on youth leadership.

No. 108: Doing the Right Thing: Ethnical Development Across Diverse Environments
Dale Borman Fink (Editor)

This issue recognizes the critical importance of guiding young people toward mature decision making in the arena of ethics and explores ways in which that guidance can take shape. Through surveys, obser-vation, and interviews, the chapter authors have designed activities geared to reshape the way youngsters and others think about right and wrong. Studies of teen-oriented chatroom scripts and other online communities highlight the growing trend of adolescents who seem to dwell more online than in their own neighborhoods. Traditional activ-ities such as sports, out-of-class time, and political and community engagement are also examined as sources of social and emotional development.

No. 107: Community Schools: A Strategy for Integrating Youth Development and School Reform
Joy Dryfoos, Jane Quinn (Editors)

Although each community school is different from the others, and each community approaches reform in a variety of ways, the com-mon thread is that "schools cannot do it alone." This volume of New Directions for Youth Development summarizes the experiences of the Children's Aid Society and Beacons in New York City and other places; university-assisted models in Philadelphia; school-system-generated community schools in Chicago; communitywide councils in Evansville, Indiana, and Portland, Oregon; and Boston's Full-Service Schools Roundtable. The efforts of the Public Edu-cation Network to build public will for collaboration and Califor-nia's statewide Healthy Start Initiative show how it is possible to expand the concepts over larger areas, and the Coalition for Com-munity Schools provides the rationale for national community school legislation.

No. 106: Putting Youth at the Center of Community Building
Joel Nitzberg (Editor)

This issue offers an explanation of community-building principles and how they can be applied to working with youth. The chapter authors provide examples of how community building can be con-nected to youth development and how youth can be change agents. A challenge underlying this approach is to help communities engage youth in change efforts that are meaningful to them. This may mean expanding youth expression in ways that influence community behavior. It also means looking for ways for youth to develop and use leadership skills to influence change. Contributors show how the community-building field emphasizes the importance of networking and building relationships, enabling all members of a community to potentially be change agents.

No. 105: Participation in Youth Programs: Enrollment, Attendance, and Engagement
Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, Suzanne M. Bouffard (Editors)

This timely volume proposes that to understand and intervene to improve participation in out-of-school time (OST) programs, issues of access, enrollment, and engagement must be considered, and in the context of program quality. Contributing authors pose a three-part equation where participation = enrollment + attendance + engagement, and examine these three critical components of overall participation in out-of-school time programs. Chapters provide research-based strategies on how to increase participation, and how to define, mea-sure, and study it, drawing from the latest developmental research and evaluation literature.

No. 104: Professional Development for Youth Workers
Pam Garza, Lynne M. Borden, Kirk A. Astroth (Editors)

Professional development of caring, capable adults who interact with and on behalf of youth is a key issue for youth organizations and agen-cies committed to creating environments that nurture young people's growth and transition into adulthood. This issue offers a glimpse of some of the innovated, sustained, and coordinated efforts to advance the preparation and support of youth workers based on the principles of positive youth development. Contributors provide examples demonstrating how to support youth work interaction as well as train-ing networks that take common approaches to professional develop-ment and outline some of the significant challenges faced in youth worker professional development and their solutions. From defining competencies for entry-level youth workers to case studies that explore the role of colleges and universities in professionalizing the field, this issue serves as a record of the evolution of the youth development field and a call for its continued progress in building a comprehensive sys-tem that can meet the needs of both youth workers and the young people they come into contact with each day.

No. 103: The Transforming Power of Adult-Youth Relationships
Gil G. Noam, Nina Fiore (Editors)

Introducing various perspectives that look at the changes in theo-ries, attitudes, approaches, and practices in adult-youth relation-ships, this issue stresses a model of growth based on partnership and connection over older theories of autonomy and hierarchy between adults and youth. These ways of viewing young people's contributions as extremely important to societal development have to be increasingly embedded in a perspective that young people grow and thrive in relationships and that social institutions, espe-cially families, schools, and youth-serving organizations, have to change dramatically. Contributors also demonstrate how much common ground exists between older and emerging models of youth development and how much work remains to be done.

No. 102: Negotiation: Interpersonal Approaches to Intergroup Conflict
Daniel L. Shapiro, Brooke E. Clayton (Editors)

This issue considers the emotional complexities of intergroup con-flict. The chapter authors examine the relational challenges that youth encounter in dealing with conflict and, combining innovative theory with ambitious practical application, identify conflict man-agement strategies. These interventions have affected millions of youth across the continents.

No. 101: After-School Worlds: Creating a New Social Space for Development and Learning
Gil G. Noam (Editor)

Showcases a variety of large-scale policy initiatives, effective insti-tutional collaborations, and innovative programming options that produce high-quality environments in which young people are realizing their potential. Contributors underscore the conditions-- from fostering interagency partnerships, to structuring organized out-of-school-time activities, to encouraging staff-student relation-ships--that lay the groundwork for positive youth development after school. At the same time, their examples illuminate the challenges for policymakers, researchers, and educators to redefine the field of afterschool as a whole, including the search for a shared lexicon, the push to preserve the character of afterschool as an intermediary space, and the need to create and further programs that are grounded in reliable research and that demonstrate success.

No. 100: Understanding the Social Worlds of Immigrant Youth
Carola Suarez-Orozco, Irina L. G. Todorova (Editors)

This issue seeks to deepen understanding of the major social influ-ences that shape immigrant youths' paths in their transition to the United States. The authors delve into a number of social worlds that can contribute to the positive development of immigrant youth. They also provide insight into sources of information about identity pathway options available to those youth. The chapters offer new data regarding the developmental opportunities that family roles and responsibilities, school contexts, community organizations, religious involvement and beliefs, gendered expectations, and media influences present.

No. 99: Deconstructing the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Johanna Wald, Daniel J. Losen (Editors)

This issue describes how school policies can have the effect, if not the intent, of setting youths on the "prison track." It also identifies programs and policies that can help schools maintain safety and order while simultaneously reaching out to those students most in need of structure, education, and guidance. Offering a balanced per-spective, this issue begins to point the way toward less punitive, more effective, hopeful directions.

No. 98: Youth Facing Threat and Terror: Supporting Preparedness and Resilience
Robert D. Macy, Susanna Barry, Gil G. Noam (Editors)

Intended to help clinicians, youth and community workers, teachers, and parents to support resolution and recovery, this volume examines the effects of threat, stress, and traumatic events, including acts of ter-ror, on children and youth. It addresses not only the individual reper-cussions of threat but also a collective approach to threat. It also illustrates important ways to prevent traumatic situations from hav-ing lifelong, negative impacts. These methods involve providing immediate intervention and fostering safety as soon as a threatening incident has occurred as well as preparing children for future threats in ways that enhance feelings of safety rather than raise anxiety.

No. 97: When, Where, What, and How Youth Learn
Karen J. PIttman, Nicole Yohalem, Joel Tolman (Editors)

Acknowledging that young people learn throughout their waking hours, in a range of settings, and through a variety of means, this vol-ume presents practical advancements, theory development, and new research in policies and infrastructures that support expanded defi-nitions of learning. Representing the perspectives of a broad range of scholars and practitioners, chapters explore ways to connect learn-ing experiences that happen inside and outside school buildings and during and after the school day. The contributors offer a compelling argument that communitywide commitments to learning are neces-sary if our nation's young people are to become problem free, fully prepared, and fully engaged.

No. 96: Youth Participation: Improving Institutions and Communities
Benjamin Kirshner, Jennifer L. O'Donoghue, Milbrey McLaughlin (Editors)

Explores the growing effort in youth organizations, community development, and schools and other public institutions to foster meaningful activities that empower adolescents to participate in deci-sion making that affects their lives and to take action on issues they care about. Pushing against long-held, culturally specific ideas about adolescence as well as institutional barriers to youth involvement, the efforts of these organizations engaged in youth participation pro-grams deserve careful analysis and support. This volume offers an assessment of the field, as well as specific chapters that chronicle efforts to achieve youth participation across a variety of settings and dimensions.

No. 95: Pathways to Positive Development Among Diverse Youth
Richard M. Lerner, Carl S. Taylor, Alexander von Eye (Editors)

Positive youth development represents an emerging emphasis in developmental thinking that is focused on the incredible potential of adolescents to maintain healthy trajectories and develop resilience, even in the face of myriad negative influences. This volume discusses the theory, research, policy, and programs that take this strength-based, positive development approach to diverse youth. It examines theoretical ideas about the nature of positive youth development, and about the related concepts of thriving and well-being, as well as current and needed policy strategies, "best practice" in youth-serving programs, and promising community-based efforts to marshal the developmental assets of individuals and communities to enhance thriving among youth.

No. 94: Youth Development and After-School Time: A Tale of Many Cities
Gil G. Noam, Beth Miller (Editors)

This issue looks at exciting citywide and cross-city initiatives in after-school time. It presents case studies of youth-related work that combines large-scale policy, developmental thinking, and innovative programming, as well as research and evaluation. Chapters discuss efforts of community-based organizations, museums, universities, schools, and clinics who are joining forces, sharing funding and other resources, and jointly creating a system of after-school care and education.

No. 93: A Critical View of Youth Mentoring
Jean E. Rhodes (Editor)

Mentoring has become an almost essential aspect of youth develop-ment and is expanding beyond the traditional one-to-one, volunteer, community-based mentoring. This volume provides evidence of the benefits of enduring high-quality mentoring programs, as well as apprenticeships, advisories, and other relationship-based programs that show considerable promise. Authors examine mentoring in the workplace, teacher-student interaction, and the mentoring poten-tial of student advising programs. They also take a critical look at the importance of youth-adult relationships and how a deeper understanding of these relationships can benefit youth mentoring. This issue raises important questions about relationship-based interventions and generates new perspectives on the role of adults in the lives of youth.

No. 92: Zero Tolerance: Can Suspension and Expulsion Keep Schools Safe?
Russell J. Skiba, Gil G. Noam (Editors)

Addressing the problem of school violence and disruption requires thoughtful understanding of the complexity of the personal and systemic factors that increase the probability of violence, and designing interventions based on that understanding. This inaugural issue explores the effectiveness of zero tolerance as a tool for pro-moting school safety and improving student behavior and offers alternative strategies that work.