The guiding principles of youth development—universal, asset-based, collaborative, and relevant—are important in establishing the foundation of your program and are essential topics for staff development. Incorporating strong youth development principles is essential to a high-quality program (Hamilton & Hamilton, 2004; Smith, Peck, Denault, Blazevski, & Akiva, 2010; Walker, Marczak, Blyth, & Borden, 2005). Throughout this Toolkit, we discuss the importance of youth development and provide guidance for incorporating a youth development approach into your program design and delivery. Youth development is sometimes called “positive youth development” to indicate a strengths-based approach and a positive developmental trajectory. In this Toolkit, we use the term youth development to mean the same thing, embracing the many theories and practices that make up the youth development approach.
What exactly do we mean by youth development? It is no surprise that the term is thrown around a lot and used in many different ways. In this section, we discuss this theory and how it can and should drive programming. In the section on program delivery, we discuss how to enact this theory as you implement your program.
Youth development is a theory, a natural process of human development, and an intended outcome (Hamilton & Hamilton, 2004). Youth development programs can create positive academic and life trajectories for young people (Durlak, Mahoney, Bohnert, & Parente, 2010; Vandell, Reisner, & Pierce, 2007). Many fields of practice have embraced youth development as a theory anchored in the principle that “every young person has the potential for successful, healthy development and that all youth possess the capacity for positive development” (Lerner et al., 2005, p. 20).
Many youth development frameworks exist. You can choose to align to an established framework or simply focus on the common elements of youth development that come from the literature. The common elements for programs are as follows: universality (programs are available to all youth), asset based (programs are geared toward building on strengths in the community, within youth, and in the school versus preventing risk), collaborative (programs are anchored in collaborations in the community and with families and the school), and relevant (programs celebrate and reflect the local community, cultures, and participants; Anderson-Butcher, Stetler, & Midle, 2006; Hamilton, Hamilton, & Pittman, 2004).
If you want to use an existing framework to communicate youth development to your stakeholders, some broadly accepted youth development frameworks include but are not limited to the following: Developmental Assets, the Five C’s of Positive Youth Development, the Community Action Framework for Youth Development, and the Administration for Children and Families Youth Demonstration Project Conceptual Framework. Other locally adapted and evolving frameworks may be useful to consider for your program. Make sure to ask around and see what other local programs use and whether your state has adopted a framework as a part of its quality standards. One example of a recognized approach to youth development that supports quality in afterschool and expanded learning settings was created by the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality at the Forum for Youth Investment. The pyramid shows how elements of quality programs build on each other to lead to youth engagement. More information on this quality framework pyramid can be found at http://www.cypq.org.
High-quality youth development programs are physically and emotionally safe, allowing relationships among youth and between youth and staff members to thrive. In such environments, youth have the space and freedom to fully engage in programming and ultimately focus on developing and improving their personal, social, and academic skills. Youth engagement can happen through strategic opportunities for choice, reflection, and leadership.
We use the term intentional a lot throughout this Toolkit. By intentional we mean purposeful and with forethought, whether in the context of program development or implementation. Intentionality in program development refers to purposeful decisions about allocating resources, hiring staff members, and deciding on programming to meet your vision and reach your goals. Intentionality in program implementation refers to purposefully designing activities that recognize context, the unique contributions of young people, and participants’ current developmental stage. The section on program delivery expands on these strategies and provides suggestions for incorporating youth development principles into program practices and activities.