PYD+Settings+and+Contexts


 * Directions: ** In the space below, your team should provide a summary of information related to the course topic by synthesizing the key points in the readings this week, providing real-world examples and applications of the content, and identifying and linking to new resources that cover the course material. In addition, your team will provide at least one interesting and engaging discussion question that captures some key point/s of interest related to your team's topic. Your team will then lead this discussion for approximately 15-20 minutes during our synchronous class meeting on Tuesday night.

Bradshaw, C. P. & Gabarino, J. (2004). Using and building family strengths to promote positive youth development. In S. Hamilton & M. Hamilton (Eds.), The Youth Development Handbook (pp. 170-192). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
 * __Main idea__**: Although youth development entails the collaboration of multiple institutions (schools, families, communities, churches, etc.), parents have a major impact on the positive development of their children. Youth development professionals can work to establish strong families within the context of youth programming.

__Families in the Ecology of Human Development__
 * With adolescence comes less and less dependence on parents and more interaction with peers.
 * Adolescents tend to seek out peers who share their interests, values, and attitudes, which in turn reinforce their own behaviors, whether positive or negative.
 * Yet parents still have the greatest influence over adolescents’ major decisions. However, the amount of parental influence vs. peer influence depends on level of parental attachment.
 * Youth with strong parental attachment are less likely to be influenced by deviant peers.
 * **Context Matters:** youth professionals must also consider the youth’s background (families, friends, neighborhoods, schools, etc.) as well as previous traumas when addressing a child’s development.
 * **Biology and Environment Interact:** Effects of biological risk factors (i.e. genetics) depend on the family environment

__Parenting Practices__
 * Four main challenges many parents face today (can create “social toxicity”):
 * Adult authority is weaker and more fragmented.
 * Young people spend more time with friends than adults.
 * Nowadays teens have more freedom to choose friends, school activities, sexual activity, and career paths.
 * Exposure to mass media negatively influences positive youth development.
 * Which of these four is the biggest challenge to overcome for PYD?
 * **Monitoring and Disclosure:** Parents can adapt to socially toxic environments by monitoring their child(ren)’s activities or promoting a familial setting that encourages adolescent disclosure.
 * **Authoritative Parenting:** An authoritative parenting style (firmness, warmth, and independence) is more effective at promoting PYD than an authoritarian style (high control or firmness without warmth). However, for African- and Asian-American youth, authoritative parenting has been shown to be less effective in promoting academic achievement (similar to the topics of week 5, we must consider racial differences).
 * **Adopting Parental Behaviors to Combat Social Toxicity:** Some parents may adjust their parenting style depending on their community to compensate for increased (or decreased) levels of social toxicity. Research shows that authoritarian parenting (especially the lack of warmth) may lead to increased behavior problems among African American youth.

__Challenges Resulting From Developmental Changes in the Youth and Family__
 * Parents and youth face challenges during periods of change, whether it’s change because of adolescent growth and development, or change related to the re-structuring of the family (divorce, step-parents, etc.).
 * **Divorced and Single-Parent Families:** Children from divorced, single-parent, or cohabitating families may be at greater risk for behavior problems and lower academic achievement. Youth development professionals need to consider including extended family and those with family-like ties in program development, as they can be a potential source of positive adolescent growth.
 * **Open and Closed Family Systems:** Families with “open systems” (those that are influenced by the larger society) are able to use community support and resources more than families with “closed systems” who tend to close off relations with others, subsequently impeding adolescent development. Open systems are most beneficial when all participating institutions agree upon a set of values and commitments.

__How Can Youth Development Professionals Strengthen Families?__
 * Youth development professionals should focus on the following 6 attributes of strong families in order to encourage these attributes among families involved with PYD:
 * //Appreciation//. Strong families encourage and support one another.
 * //Spending time together//. Strong families collectively participate in all kinds of activities regularly.
 * //Good communication patterns//. Strong families practice honest, open communication with one another and involve everyone in major decisions.
 * //Commitment//. Strong families place the family at the top of the priority list.
 * //Ability to deal with crisis in a positive manner//. In times of distress, strong families band together and solve challenges in an effective and efficient manner.
 * //Religious orientation//. Strong families agree upon a set of spiritual or religious beliefs, which remind them to think outside themselves.
 * Ways that youth development leaders can build family strengths:
 * **Educate Parents:** Youth development professionals can work with parents and communities to show them how to discipline positively and adapt their parenting strategies to combat local toxic forces.
 * **Look for Age-Appropriate Ways to Involve Parents:** Even though parent involvement declines as students age, parents can influence their child’s academic performance by inquiring about their studies and future educational goals.
 * **Encourage Joint Youth-Parent Activities:** Youth development professionals should emphasize the importance of parents and adolescents spending time together. Volunteering is an especially good use of parent-child time, since it benefits not only the parent and child but also the community at large.
 * **Provide the Support Parents Need to Do Their Job:** Youth need a safe place to be during the time after school and before parents return home from work. After-school programs are an ideal way for youth development professionals to monitor youth, but we need to ensure that more after-school programs are available, accessible, and effective. Public policies should also be amended to support parenting efforts.
 * **Promote Networking Among Parents:** Youth development professionals should help connect families and social systems with one another and set mutual norms and expectations of acceptable activities and behaviors. Parents and practitioners need to know when it is OK to intervene in adolescent relationships.

[] Family Strengthening Policy Center
 * Examples of including family in youth development:**

[] ACT for Youth Center of Excellence

[] Harvard Family Research Project

[] Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth

Gomez, B.J., & Ang, P.M. (2007). Promoting positive youth development in schools. Theory Into Practice, 46(2), 97-104.
 * __Main idea__:** Schools can be an integral part of PYD, since they are places where adolescents spend much of their time and they can influence academic and non-academic development. In order for schools to successfully achieve PYD, they should also include the support of the larger community.

Three focal areas for promoting PYD in schools:
 * **Positive Adults in School**
 * Positive adults provide a supportive, responsive environment for adolescents while being firm and setting healthy boundaries and expectations.
 * Teachers have the capacity to set positive examples for adolescents by providing constructive feedback and praising prosocial behavior.
 * However, students must take advantage of such adult resources if they are to benefit from them.
 * **Positive Places and Environments in School**
 * Healthy school boundaries (shared beliefs, personal regard for others, social expectations, and obligations) allow for increased autonomy with age and encourage shared responsibilities for maintaining a positive environment for youth development.
 * A physically and emotionally safe climate is paramount to PYD. Schools should make structural changes, add support services, and promote a socially accepting climate in order to help kids feel safe.
 * Schools need to also promote professional development among teachers and school staff so that they feel supported by administrators and community stakeholders.
 * **Positive Opportunities in School**
 * Positive opportunities are programs or activities that promote the 6 C’s of PYD: competence, confidence, connections, character, caring, and contribution to society.
 * This includes activities scheduled both during and after class time.
 * Social-emotional learning (SEL) efforts: process of developing skills to manage and balance social and emotional issues in life (problem-solving skills, communication, decision making, etc.).
 * **Key Considerations for Implementation and Sustainability**
 * Successful PYD in schools requires the participation of surrounding institutions (family, churches, communities, law enforcement, etc.). It takes a village to raise a child.
 * Schools should assess their readiness before implementing PYD strategies.
 * In order to sustain PYD efforts in schools, many resources are required:
 * Ongoing financial resources
 * Stakeholder collaboration
 * Active participation of all parties
 * Continued professional development for school personnel
 * Commitment from stakeholders

Outley, C., Bocarro, J., & Boleman, C. (2011). Recreation as a Component of the Community Youth Development System. New Directions for Youth Development, 130, 59-72. Youth today develop within nested systems that either positively or negatively influence development. Recreation in Community Youth Development: A Brief History.
 * Number of youth living in poverty increased steadily since 1998- leads to the discussion on the role of the community in providing support systems to youth.
 * The role of out of-school-time programs is essential in the development of youth.
 * Need to begin to enlist community residents in efforts to create supportive and caring environments with a common goal of positive youth development.
 * Recreational services have a vital role in connecting youth to their communities as well as enabling youth and adult allies to improve challenging societal conditions.
 * Based on these assumptions:
 * Youth operate in numerous and diverse contexts- school, family, peers, neighborhoods, etc.
 * Recreation centers and park areas where many gangs and problem youth congregate are widely distributed across communities and can be used to deal with youth-related problems.
 * Youth leaders are experienced in establishing supportive and caring relationships with their youth
 * Recreation activities are intrinsically appealing to large segments of youth and can attract diverse young people and have a positive influence on encouraging prosocial behavior.
 * Late 1970s and early 1980s:
 * Budget cuts/constraints led to deterioration of many recreation services. Departments shift emphasis to a more managerial profession-lead to recreation departments becoming more business-like.
 * 1980s-early 1990s: increased youth-related problems (gangs, school shootings, pregnancy rates, higher dropout rates, etc.)
 * Park and recreation departments redefined their purpose-expanded their traditional boundaries as providers of “fun and games” to a more holistic youth-serving approach.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Program efforts include: outdoor adventure, local sports lessons/leagues, arts and culture, gender and culturally specific opportunities, youth clubs, and direct contact through mentoring/peer groups.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Include many local agencies/organizations (4-H, the Y, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Community-Based Youth Development
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Approach involves encouraging adult-youth relationships, while providing opportunities that enable youth to build their own competencies and become engaged as partners in their own development and the development of their communities.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Requires a holistic, strength-based approach focused on the potential contributions of youth-based programs to create and carry out an overall agenda for the change in the community.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Community is often described as the settings, contexts, and social relations held within a geographical area among its people and resources.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Pittman states: that community (schools, religious organizations, etc.) influences youth’s developmental needs. Affluent communities provide a richer diversity of activities and supports.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bringing the Community Together >
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Camino and Zeldin set out 3 major themes for the basic premise of what constitutes best practices for community youth development:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Identify and build on assets as well as needs
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Engage citizens and promote local control
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Create partnerships for capacity building and systemic change
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">These 3 themes center on the basic fundamental understanding of youth development and community development, focus on the values of citizen mobilization, youth empowerment, and shared power.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Theme 1: Identify and Build on Assets as Well as Needs <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Theme 2: Engage Citizens and Promote Local Control <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Theme 3: Create Partnerships for Capacity Building and Systemic Change
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Primary focus is to build on the assets of individual youth as well as the resources within the community to assist in preparing youth to become productive adults.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The role of the community is to build future productive and well-functioning adults and must go beyond providing just programs and services.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Better youth-based organizations focus on identifying and building on local assets instead of community deficits, and identifying issues affecting the entire community.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Aim is to create social capital within communities so that local stakeholders can take control of local issues.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This approach assists youth in developing their skills as organizers and activists, which builds on a community’s capacity to develop social capital.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ginwright states: “community capacity occurs when youth work collectively with adults on community issues; develop alliances with institutions, organizations and individuals; and ultimately shape policies to improve their community.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Aim is to create long-term commitments that result in sustainable change in structures and systems, formal and informal.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Provide a way for organizations, individually and collectively, to influence policy, the community, and individual youth behavior.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Public-private partnerships can result in a pooling of resources to address a mission relevant to their common constituency while meeting increased demands for community youth services.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Conclusion:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Each of the themes illustrates that the role of recreation in community youth development is changing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Focus has shifted from a fun-and-games mentality to a more deliberate strategy placing more value on development of the community as a whole and individual wellbeing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Community youth development is a fundamental change in how we provide services and opportunities for young people.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Based on all sectors working in an atmosphere of trust, cooperation, and respect.

Swisher, R., & & Whitlock, J. (2004). How neighborhoods matter for youth development (pp. 216-238). In S. Hamilton & M. Hamilton (Eds.). The Youth Development Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. The quality of the neighborhood in which you live affects youth development.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Social and Perceptual components of neighborhoods


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Constituted by social interactions between residents
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Relationships with members in the community are important resources on which youth development efforts attempt to build.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The New Urban Poverty


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Theory developed by William Julius Wilson- experience of poverty is more detrimental to youth today than it was in the past, due to changes in the economic, demographic, and social structures of the neighborhoods in which poor families live.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the past: inner-city families represented wider socioeconomic range, middle-class families served as role models for poorer youth, and had ability to demand better quality schools.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Today: poverty more concentrated and accompanied by jobless, this concentration leads to the isolation of youth from mainstream routes to success (higher education and stable employment) and makes alternative (often criminal) routes to self-sufficiency more appealing.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The cause of this social transformation of the inner city is a broad socioeconomic shift from manufacturing to services and information-based employment, reshaped the location of employment opportunity.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Low skilled jobs have moved to suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Poor are caught in a “spatial mismatch”- a geographic disparity between the locations of low-skilled jobs and the residences of poor, low-skilled workers who might otherwise be employed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Neighborhoods Matter:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have significant effects on birth weight and infant mortality and on variables typically thought to represent stable individual characteristics, such as IQ and temperament.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In childhood and adolescence, neighborhoods found to shape negative outcomes such as aggression, delinquency and substance use as well as positive outcomes such as high school completion, etc.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Found to influence adult outcomes including child abuse, single parenthood, educational attainment, crime and substance abuse, employment and earnings and general well-being.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Neighborhood Demographics <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Neighborhood Social Capital
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Many of the negative outcomes associated with concentrated poverty are ultimately attributable to a neighborhood’s economic and demographic structure
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Income: the percentage of families below poverty level in a neighborhood is associated with many common youth related problems.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Neighborhood income reflects local employment opportunities and is linked to nearly all aspects of neighborhood social capital and quality.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Due to its influence on tax revenues, can partially influence the quality and funding of schools and other public services.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Human Capital: Not so much the presence of poor families but the absence of a critical mass of neighborhood human capital (residents with more education, skills and training) that undermines youth development. The presences of such individuals in a neighborhood represent potential resources that may be drawn on to achieve neighborhood goals.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Race and Ethnicity: concentrated poverty today is the result of continuing racial segregation in housing and growing economic inequality between racial groups. Segregation, combined with economic inequality is detrimental to youth development and society as a whole. Reducing segregation requires efforts to stabilize integrated neighborhoods and increase the housing options of all races.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Household and Age Structures: May have important consequences for youth development. Lack of adult supervision (parent to child ratios) associated with common youth problems.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Population Stability: influence the frequency and quality of social interactions in a neighborhood. Frequent moves disrupt social relationships and make people less likely to invest in a new relationship. Long residence in a neighborhood gives incentives to make investments of time, self, and money in the neighborhood.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">James Coleman defines Social Capital as “a resource embedded in social relationships between actors that may be drawn on to achieve a variety of ends, from things as simple as borrowing tools to more ambitious projects such as socializing children, going to college, or mobilizing support for change.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Three main types of resources that social relationships provide:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Trust that obligations to others will be reciprocated in the future
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Access to information
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The effective sanctifying of norms
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Intergenerational Closure: relationships between generations, and a high degree of interconnectedness in the networks of adults and youth.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Emerges from multiple relationships among parents, their children, their children’s friends, their friend’s parents, and other adults in the neighborhood.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Research suggests that we must be careful to recognize the many varieties of social relationships and their potential for facilitating both positive and negative outcomes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bonding Ties: characterized by frequent and sometimes intense reactions and tend to be among people of similar backgrounds. Bonding relationships are an extension of the family and thrive on trust and everyday interdependence.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Can be constructed in opposition of another group. May also inhibit the development and freedom of individual members to pursue opportunities outside the local area.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Informal Controls: bonding ties formed in relationships that enable good and bad activities and discourage others.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bridging Ties: relationships that involve a more heterogeneous set of people and tend to be less frequent and more instrumental in nature. An important by-product is that they make possible a coordination of information across the various developmental settings of families, schools, neighborhoods and the wider community.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Neighborhood Quality: includes several dimensions critical for youth development including- a sense of safety, order and control, and positive expectations for the future.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Interactions between Neighborhood and Family Resources
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Concentrated Disadvantage: Both the family and the neighborhood are lacking in resources. Most in need of help but may lack many of the economic, human and social capital that youth programs typically build.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Concentrated Advantage: a situation of high resources for both families and neighborhoods.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Social Buffers: Middle-class neighbors acting as role models of mainstream routes to success, providing bridging ties, and monitoring and sanctioning undesired behavior to youth from poor families.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Competitive Advantage: Youth from advantaged families living in poor neighborhoods have a competitive advantage
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Adaptive Strategies: Coping strategies used by resourceful parents in disadvantaged contexts.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Conclusion >> __Development of Community and Community Resiliency__ >> __A Conceptualization of Youth and Community Resiliency__ >> Figure 1: Conceptual Model for Community and Youth Resiliency >> __Conclusion and Application of Theory__ >> __Real World Examples and Resources__ >>> According to Kretzman and Mc Knight " ** Asset Mapping ** " is derived from an "asset-based" approach to community development, and refers to a range of approaches that work from the principle that a community can be built only by focusing on the strengths and capacities of the citizens and associations that call a neighborhood, community or county "home". >>> As described by Kretzmann and McKnight1, there are three levels of assets to be considered. The first is the "gifts, skills and capacities" of the individuals living in the community. The second level of assets includes "citizen associations" through which local people come together to pursue common goals. The third level of assets is those institutions present in community, such as local government, hospitals, education, and human service agencies. >>> University Outreach and Extension is unique in using individual assets (of volunteers, council members, and staff), being a part of numerous citizen associations, and being one of several institutions present in all communities of the state on a county-wide basis. >> >> Blyth, D. (2011). The future of youth development: Multiple wisdoms, alternate pathways, and aligned accountability. //Journal of Youth Development, 6//(3), 167-182. >> **Main Idea:** Based on trends and events observed or experienced by Dale Blyth of the University of Minnesota over the last 30 years in research, evaluation and practice, this article examines three challenges facing and shaping the future of the youth programs as contexts for development. The first challenge surrounds how the field comes to understand, value and integrate different forms of knowing, particularly quantitative data. The second challenge represents how the field shifts from proving it makes a difference to improving the ways it makes a difference by expanding the pathways to impact. The third challenge regards how the field responds to and shapes accountability pressures in ways that better align accountability rather than succumb to it. >> __Recent Shifts Affecting the Field__ >> __Three Challenges Moving Forward__ >> **Where** >> Figure 1 >> Pathway to improve design >> Second pathway involves changing program access and the level of youth participation >> Third pathway Improving Quality of practice at the point of service >> Fourth pathway relies on better understanding and promoting youth engagement in programs >> Fifth pathway involves upgrading the expertise of youth workers >> >> Table 1 >> Sample Way of Aligning Accountability >> || Selecting Outcomes || Policy Level || >> || Monitoring Outcomes || Geographic Levels || >> || Effective Strategies || System Level >> >> >> >> || >> || Improving Access || System Level >> >> >> >> || >> || Quality of Program || Organization Level || >> || Quality of Professional || Association Level ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Few programs address only a single component of the analysis, reflecting the planner’s recognition of the importance of a synergy among the many components of youth and neighborhood development.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Suggestions for ways participants can think about combining multiple objectives whenever possible:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Link Economical and Social Capital Development
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Build Varieties of Neighborhood Social Capital
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Promote Human Capital and Collective Efficacy
 * ==== Brennan, M.A. (2008). Conceptualizing resiliency: An interactional perspective for community and youth development. //Child Care in Practice, 14//(1), 55-64. ====
 * ====**Main Idea:** This article seeks to build on previous theory and literature to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the mechanisms for linking community and youth resiliency. Included is a review of youth development literature focusing on social networks, social support and the merging of these with community literature emphasizing adaptive capacities and resiliency. The literature and conceptual framework increases our understanding of the interrelationship between youth and community resiliency. From this, future research and applied program and policy that simultaneously shape youth and community adaptive capacities can emerge. __Youth Development-(YD)__====
 * o YD can be defined to include larger community, neighborhoods, schools and other contextual layers
 * o YD can be defined as representing the positive engagement of parents, relatives, friends and neighbors in creating programs, opportunities and supportive environments that young people need
 * o Social support from family, friends and others is often cited as being essential to YD and resiliency
 * o Community involvement is an important part of YD and community building, and It leads to effective adult youth interactions
 * o Young people involved in communities become empowered to become problem solvers, decision makers and committed leaders in the future
 * o Activities such as volunteerism and neighborhood involvement are associated with the degree of motivation for adults to engage with youth
 * o Engagement and community building activities provide not only tangible benefits but also sources of close relationship and meaning in life that are necessary for PYD
 * o Considerable emphasis has been placed on “social capital” and “community agency” in promoting adolescent well being
 * o No social capital can be a critical factor in child maltreatment and a host of negative related youth conditions
 * o No social capital can be a critical factor in child maltreatment and a host of negative related youth conditions
 * o Community is a comprehensive network of individual relationships that express common interest and act to meet the general needs of a locality
 * o Community views a locality as a place where people live and meet their common daily needs together
 * o Other view community as a dynamic process of bringing people together
 * o The interactive process culminates in the emergence of community
 * o The key component of the interactive process is found in the creation and maintenance of channels of interaction and communication among diverse local groups that would otherwise be directed toward their more individual interests
 * o Local economy, sociodemographics, power structures, organizations, and government are without a doubt vital to the make up of a locality
 * o Agency can be seen as the capacity of people to manage, utilize and enhance those resources available to them in addressing locality wide issues
 * o Merging community and YD theory can help us to better conceptualize how we might mutually contribute to their resiliency
 * o A shift from a prospective of communities as helpless victims need outside assistance to acknowledging the importance of local level action and community capacity in mitigation, response and recovery
 * o Effective youth and community development are often faced with a variety of obstacles and vulnerabilities
 * o Applications of theory that can contribute to the emergence of youth and communities resiliency include the following:
 * o Establish and enhance local and social support structures
 * o Build interactive capacities and increase venues for interaction
 * o Empower youth to become long-term contributors to local community development
 * o Present youth with opportunities for personal self growth, skills enhancement and leadership development
 * o Some examples of innovative community development: Harlem Children’s Zone, The East Lake Foundation- Atlanta,GA, The Atlanta Civic Site-Annie E Casey Foundation- Atlanta, GA, The federally funded promised neighborhood grants: Athens, GA, Macon, GA and Atlanta, GA
 * Asset Mapping:
 * **Asset Mapping**
 * A shift from a broad sense of the importance of community in youth development (YD) to a more focused view of public perceptions of what youth need to succeed
 * A shift from a broad sense of the importance of informal opportunities to a more focused sense of how we design and deliver deliberate non-formal community learning opportunities through programs
 * More of a focus on learning opportunities that are intentional contexts of development and on systems approaches in communities that support learning opportunities
 * A shift to “major league” status and new expectations such as:
 * o Greater accountability for greater quality
 * o Certification of professional practitioner and accreditation of programs
 * o More systematic and public policy supports
 * o Increase use of data and evidence in the design and operations of youth programs
 * 1) 1. __Recognition and Integration of Multiple Forms of Wisdom__
 * We must learn to embrace practical wisdom and integrate it with multiple other types of wisdom
 * We must become more adept to using quantitative data make or case related to reaching our goals
 * Cultural, community and participant wisdom is also essential
 * Youth as colleagues in building the YD field is one of our greatest untapped resources available
 * Moving from “framework wars” to “creative integration”
 * Blyth 2006 development diet and exercise metaphor-this framework helps leaders think about the accumulation of experiences, not just the impact of one program
 * Youth programs need to better track data and analyze it more usefully
 * Better preparation and support for “bilingual bridgers” or “translators” who can move across systems and help integrate different forms of wisdom
 * More journals that integrate different forms of wisdom and are accessible to a wide range of YD professionals
 * We must find a better balance in how we come to understand and use what will make a difference
 * 1) 2. __Exploration of Alternative Pathways to Impact__
 * A shift from the additive model to the multiplicative model
 * Equation: **RI =PD x A x QP x YE**
 * o **RI** represents the **Real Impact** experienced by a youth in a program
 * o **PD** represents **Program Design** features that enhance the potential for impact
 * o **A** represents a youth’s **Access** to and participation in the program
 * o **QP** represents the **Quality of Practice** as actually delivered in the program
 * o **YE** represents the individual **Youth’s Engagement** in the program
 * This equation only assesses the impact of a program not the impact of communities, families or other factors in a youth’s life
 * These factors are interactive
 * Absence of a factor means multiplication by zero and thus no impact
 * A shift from adding programs to working on factors that can improve the impact of programs
 * A shift from proving impact to improving impact
 * Explore the exploration and implementation of alternative pathways to impact, other than formal educational outcomes and cost values to bad outcomes
 * o Bridging research and program design with better empirical understanding of best practices
 * o This strategy is commonly in the hands of program developers that select the strategies and activities that make up a program
 * o Often the same issues that affect participation affect access, such as transportation, affordability and availability
 * o Reduce inequities and promote equal access and opportunities to participate at levels high enough to make a difference (informal vs. formal opportunities)
 * o This pathway relies on the fidelity of those features of practice that research has shown strongly connect quality measures to actual program outcomes
 * o Generally Middle Managers and front line staff shape what happens at the “point of service”
 * o Viewing the individual characteristics of youth not the observable “general” practice going on in the program
 * o An intriguing possibility is using levels of youth engagement in youth programs as a major outcome variable for both programmatic and policy purposes
 * o This pathway can have impact on multiple other pathways
 * o These changes will likely involve some combination of increasing core competencies in youth workers, increase their expertise in seeing situations differently, diagnosing what is happening and implementing different approaches in real time
 * 1) 3. __Alignment of Different Kinds of Accountability__
 * o A new paradigm for aligning rather than selecting a narrow form of accountability is needed
 * Accountability for … || Level Responsible ||
 * o If a clear set of outcomes existed and was regularly assessed in a community then other forms of accountability could be aligned to improve them
 * o For example geographic units such as cites could be held accountable for appropriately monitoring whether or not outcomes improve
 * o Also systems could be held accountable for selecting and resourcing appropriate strategies and assuring youth have access to them
 * o And organizations could be accountable for be the quality of practice of their programs
 * o And professional organization could be accountable for competence and expertise of practitioners
 * 1) 4. __Real World Examples and Resources__
 * Data Management Systems: 4- H Online-Youth Net in Providence, Mentor Pro 2.0, Civicore, Infinte Campus
 * Organizations and resources: Forum for Youth Investment (Ready by 21), Strive Foundation
 * Weikert Center’s Youth Program Quality Assessment
 * 8 Features of Positive Youth Development Settings (Ecceles and Gootman 2002)
 * • Physical and Psychological Safety
 * • Appropriate Structure
 * • Supportive Relationships
 * • Opportunities to Belong
 * • Positive Social Norms
 * • Support for Efficacy and Mattering
 * • Opportunities for Skill Building
 * • Integration for Family, School, and Community Efforts
 * o Weisberg 2007 SAFE model
 * o Collaborative for Building Afterschool Systems CBASS example (The Kauh study 2011)
 * o 4H Minnesota has launched an effort using both adult and youth volunteers to rate quality