Community-based Youth Organizations Research Articles

Conducting Virtual Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) is an applied research methodology in which youth work in collaboration with adult stakeholders to conduct research projects. YPAR has been traditionally conducted in person, with virtual forums typically serving as ways to share resources and ideas across independent YPAR teams or collecting data. The COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the closure of most public spaces where youth congregate (including schools) and requirements to socially distance, led to translating YPAR projects into completely virtual formats. This paper aims to provide promises and challenges of conducting virtual YPAR during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes how a team of university faculty, college students, and youth from two community-based youth organizations navigated a YPAR experience during the 2020-2021 academic year. We provide reflections on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on (a) the research setting, (b) the building of collaborative relationships, (c) YPAR methodology, (d) youth engagement, and (e) conceptualization of community action and engagement. We end with the implications for the future of YPAR for practitioners.

Building Community Resilience to Violent Extremism through Community-Based Youth Organizations: A Case of Post-Conflict North Waziristan, Pakistan

This paper presents the case of endogenously generated community resilience to violent extremism by discussing the formation and functioning of community-based youth organizations (CBYOs) in post-conflict North Waziristan. In doing so, the paper deciphers a micro-sociological phenomenon underlining the community (re)organization through their new mode of interaction and connectedness, sustaining a resilient social change in the post-conflict setting. The research employed a qualitative research design using the ‘mini-ethnographic’ case study method. For the purpose, twelve CBYOs and members of the local youth were interviewed, allowing for a subjective assessment of the emergence and sustenance of (community) resilience to violent extremism. Offering unique sociological perspectives on a post-conflict context, the study uncovers the community resilience generated through the formation of CBYOs by educated youth in North Waziristan. The social activities and engagement by youth, through education and awareness campaigns, are instilling a social change (by replacing the old ideas and customs with new ones) that aims at creating a peaceful society.

Toward a New Understanding of Community-Based Education: The Role of Community-Based Educational Spaces in Disrupting Inequality for Minoritized Youth

Community-based educational spaces (CBES; afterschool programs, community-based youth organizations, etc.) have a long history of interrupting patterns of educational inequity and continue to do so under the current educational policy climate. The current climate of education, marked by neoliberal education restructuring, has left community-based educational spaces vulnerable in many of the same ways as public schools. Considering the current political moment of deep insecurity within public education, this review of research illuminates the role community-based educational spaces have played in resisting forms of educational inequality and their role in the lives of minoritized youth. With a review of seminal education research on community-based spaces, we intend to capture the ways these diverse out-of-school spaces inform the educational experiences, political identity development, and organizing and activist lives of minoritized youth. Further, this piece contends that reimagining education beyond the borders of the school is a form of resistance, as community-based leaders, youth workers, and youth themselves negotiate the dialectical nature of community-based educational spaces within a capitalist and racialized neoliberal state.

Mindful makers: Question prompts to help guide young peoples' critical technical practices in maker spaces in libraries, museums, and community-based youth organizations

This study examines question prompts as a means to scaffold reflection and reflexivity in the design, development, and use of technological artifacts in maker spaces for youth at public libraries, museums, and community-based organizations. Qualitative analysis is applied to data gathered in four focus groups with teens, three semi-structured interviews with adults who facilitate maker spaces, and six observation sessions. Outcomes include a rich description of critical thinking in the context of technology practice, and secondly, a set of eight activation questions that serve as a tool kit to encourage reflection and scaffold mindful and critical practices in community-based maker spaces for youth. Results from this study support the development of nstruments and practices to support mindful making and critical technical practice in maker spaces for youth.

Youth–Adult Partnership and Youth Civic Development: Cross-National Analyses for Scholars and Field Professionals

Across the world, community-based youth organizations are engaging youth as partners with adults to promote youth civic development. A sample of 528 youth from the United States, Portugal, and Malaysia were surveyed to explore associations between youth–adult partnership (youth voice in decision making; supportive adult relationships) and two key aspects of civic development (youth empowerment; community connections). Multi-level modeling, regression, and profile analysis were used to compare patterns of association across the three national samples. Results indicate that youth are most likely to achieve positive outcomes when they experience the freedom to make decisions, while experiencing trust and power sharing from adults. The results were consistent across the three national samples, suggesting that the influence of partnership may transcend cultures and contexts. Future scholarship should aim to support field professionals in building organizational structures and opportunities that encourage shared dialogue, program planning, and purposeful action among youth and adults.

Toward an understanding of youth in community governance: Policy priorities and research directions

For more than a decade, many researchers and practitioners have endorsed a “positive youth development” approach, which views adolescents as active contributors to their own development and as assets to their communities. As part of this shift, youth are increasingly being invited to engage in community governance. In youth organizations, schools, community organizations, and public policy arenas, youth are making strong contributions to advisory boards and planning councils, and are integrally involved in key day-to-day functions such as program design, budgeting, outreach, public relations, training, and evaluation. State and local policy-makers are also beginning to endorse the engagement of youth in community governance. This policy endorsement, however, has largely occurred independent of scholarship on adolescent development. In this Social Policy Report, our aim is to help bridge this gap. We discuss the cultural context for youth engagement, theoretical rationales and innovative models, empirical evidence, and priorities for policy and research. Why involve youth in community governance? Three main theoretical rationales have been established: Ensuring social justice and youth representation, building civil society, and promoting youth development. Moreover, across the country, innovative models demonstrate that the theory can be effectively translated into policy. Finally, a strong research base supports the practice. When youth are engaged in meaningful decision-making – in families, schools, and youth organizations – research finds clear and consistent developmental benefits for the young people. An emerging body of research shows that organizations and communities also derive benefits when youth are engaged in governance. Several directions need to be pursued for youth engagement to exert a maximum positive impact on young people and their communities. We recommend three areas for policy development. First, public awareness of the practice needs to be better established. Societal expectations for youth remain low and negative stereotypes remain entrenched in the mass media. Second, more stable funding is needed for youth engagement. It will be especially critical to support community-based youth organizations because these places are likely to remain the primary catalysts for youth engagement in the civic life of communities. Third, it is necessary to build local capacity by supporting outreach and training through cross-sector community coalitions and independent, nonprofit intermediary organizations. These entities are best positioned to convince stakeholder groups to chart, implement, and sustain youth engagement. It is equally important to broaden the scientific context for youth engagement in community governance. Priorities for scholars are to focus research on understanding: the organizational and community outcomes that emanate from engaging youth in governance; the competencies that youth bring to governance; and how the practice of youth engagement can be sustained by communities.

Who Accepts a Rapid HIV Antibody Test? The Role of Race/Ethnicity and HIV Risk Behavior Among Community Adolescents

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend routine human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening in health care settings for all individuals aged 13-64 years; however, overall testing rates among adolescents still continue to remain low. This study examined factors related to the acceptance of HIV testing among an at-risk sample of ethnically/racially diverse community adolescents. Adolescents aged 15-21 (N = 81) years were recruited from community-based youth organizations to complete HIV risk assessment surveys. After the completion of the survey, participants were offered a free OraQuick rapid HIV antibody test. More than half (53.1%) of the participants accepted the test, with the black population being more likely to accept testing as compared to Latinos (75% vs. 39%). After controlling for race/ethnicity, significant predictors of test acceptance included history of sexual intercourse (OR = 5.43), having only one sexual partner in the past 3 months (OR = 4.88), not always using a condom with a serious partner (OR = 3.94), and not using a condom during last sexual encounter (OR = 4.75). Given that many adolescents are willing to know their HIV status, policies that support free or low-cost routine testing may lead to higher rates of case identification among youth. However, approaches must be developed to increase test acceptance among Latino adolescents and teenagers with multiple sexual partners.

Directivity and Freedom

Community-based youth organizations represent potentially powerful settings for activism among marginalized urban youth. This article uses quantitative and qualitative data collected in one such organization to examine the link between youth—adult relationships and youth activism. Survey data point to adults as contributing to youth's activist development and reveal pathways that lead to this outcome. Interview and observation data clarify youth's perceptions of adult support, highlight the complexity of building egalitarian relationships, and situate youth—adult interactions within broader public action. Analyses direct attention to transformations among youth and convey the challenges inherent in breaking out of conventional patterns of youth—adult interaction.

Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies, and Practices

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 15 No. 2 (2005) ISSN: 1546-2250 Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies, and Practices Villarruel, Francisco A. and Perkins, Daniel F. and Borden, Lynne M. (2003). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 445 pages. $38.95. ISBN 0761927875. Hurricane Katrina recently opened the eyes of Americans to the fragile natural and human ecological systems stressed beyond their capabilities to support poor neighborhoods in New Orleans. The plight of vulnerable populations has been revealed before, but Hurricane Katrina shocked and outraged many Americans as television images told stories about the conditions and consequences of deep poverty, even before the floods: poor housing conditions, lack of access to transportation, inadequate education leading to low wages, dispersed social networks. This natural disaster revealed an underclass living in third world poverty inside a developed country. There are hundreds of communities like this throughout the United States, in urban areas and hidden in rural hollows. How can we act on the national impatience with these inequities? 448 Community youth development is one response. While it is needed everywhere, the greatest need and challenge are in impoverished communities, which are disproportionately populated by people of color. One of the strengths of this book is its close attention to the issues particular to minority youth. A Google search for “community youth development” surfaced 58,900 links to various networks, training programs, publications, agencies, resources, and initiatives that include all three terms.1 Current federal and state initiatives for youth call for creating programs that encourage healthy youth development through agency collaborations within the community. The 2003 book Community Youth Development is a good starting point for practitioners beginning to work in this emerging and still confusing field. The editors define community youth development by adding the aspect of making communities better places for youth to a standard definition of youth development: Community youth development means providing youth with the opportunities to acquire a broad range of competencies and a full complement of positive connections to self, others, and the larger community…. Moreover, creating communities that promote community youth development means engaging youth as partners in the process of positive youth development, that is, providing young people with sustained positive relationships with adults, and opportunities for new skill development and mastery (p. 9). The volume sets an ambitious purpose: “to provide some solid information, practical tools, and selected references to practitioners, advocates, policy professionals and researchers in the area of community youth development.” To accomplish this, the book is divided into three parts. Part I examines issues in youth community development related specifically to African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians, immigrants, gender, sexuality, and youth with developmental disabilities. Professionals should find particularly valuable the wellgrounded recommendations essential to building culturally 449 sensitive programs. In their chapter, Roffman, Suarez-Orozco and Rhodes illustrate by program summaries, literature references and case vignettes how adults in community-based youth organizations become mentors of immigrant youth and support their development. Denner and Griffin effectively summarize useful programmatic and staff development tools to support gender equity. Some chapters will stimulate researchers to define new topics, such as the one that examines how the revitalization movement of Native American tribes impacts the tribes and their members. The authors in Part II address “macro-level issues…in a community youth development framework”: leisure, career development, court-involved youth, character development, civic development, and youth voice. Flanagan and Van Horn’s provocative chapter on civic development raises essential questions about the importance of equal access to school and community activities. The future of democracy requires that all youth experience reciprocal ties to their communities, including both peers and adults. Youth workers who strive to achieve this goal will find this chapter challenging and instructive. Part III presents chapters on key programmatic elements: youth competence and youth voice, youth-worker competence and training. For example, Yohalem thoughtfully documents and describes the skills and knowledge needed by successful youth development professionals: • The ability to build and sustain meaningful relationships with and on behalf of youth and families (pp. 361-363) • An understanding of relevant theory and current cultural trends affecting youth (pp. 363-365) • The ability to create and maintain positive, safe learning environments in...

Toward an Understanding of Youth in Community Governance: Policy Priorities and Research Directions

For more than a decade, many researchers and practitioners have endorsed a “positive youth development” approach, which views adolescents as active contributors to their own development and as assets to their communities. As part of this shift, youth are increasingly being invited to engage in community governance. In youth organizations, schools, community organizations, and public policy arenas, youth are making strong contributions to advisory boards and planning councils, and are integrally involved in key day-to-day functions such as program design, budgeting, outreach, public relations, training, and evaluation. State and local policy-makers are also beginning to endorse the engagement of youth in community governance. This policy endorsement, however, has largely occurred independent of scholarship on adolescent development. In this Social Policy Report , our aim is to help bridge this gap. We discuss the cultural context for youth engagement, theoretical rationales and innovative models, empirical evidence, and priorities for policy and research. Why involve youth in community governance? Three main theoretical rationales have been established: Ensuring social justice and youth representation, building civil society, and promoting youth development. Moreover, across the country, innovative models demonstrate that the theory can be effectively translated into policy. Finally, a strong research base supports the practice. When youth are engaged in meaningful decision-making – in families, schools, and youth organizations – research finds clear and consistent developmental benefits for the young people. An emerging body of research shows that organizations and communities also derive benefits when youth are engaged in governance. Several directions need to be pursued for youth engagement to exert a maximum positive impact on young people and their communities. We recommend three areas for policy development. First, public awareness of the practice needs to be better established. Societal expectations for youth remain low and negative stereotypes remain entrenched in the mass media. Second, more stable funding is needed for youth engagement. It will be especially critical to support community-based youth organizations because these places are likely to remain the primary catalysts for youth engagement in the civic life of communities. Third, it is necessary to build local capacity by supporting outreach and training through cross-sector community coalitions and independent, nonprofit intermediary organizations. These entities are best positioned to convince stakeholder groups to chart, implement, and sustain youth engagement. It is equally important to broaden the scientific context for youth engagement in community governance. Priorities for scholars are to focus research on understanding: the organizational and community outcomes that emanate from engaging youth in governance; the competencies that youth bring to governance; and how the practice of youth engagement can be sustained by communities.

A Community-Based Physical Education and Activity Intervention for African American Preadolescent Girls: A Strategy to Reduce Racial Disparities in Health

Physical activity habits fostered and developed early in life tend to persist into adulthood, reducing the incidence of chronic diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle in later life. This is of particular importance for racial and ethnic minority populations who experience significant disparities in rates of chronic disease. Thus, promoting physical activity in minority children is an effective strategy for reducing these health disparities. Unfortunately, however, recommendations for effective implementation of such programs are sorely lacking. This article describes the development and implementation of Lively Ladies, a physical education and activity intervention targeted to low-income, preadolescent, African American girls in a community-based youth services organization. Low-income, minority girls face the catch-22 situation of being at higher risk for physical inactivity while having limited or no access to physical fitness programs. This article demonstrates that community-based youth organizations can play an important role in changing this situation. The authors’ experience with Lively Ladies indicates the effectiveness of a theory-based program addressing modifiable psychosocial and environmental determinants of behavior. They provide recommendations to guide future design and implementation of community-based physical education and activity interventions for a population group that tends to have increased risk for physical inactivity and limited access to fitness programs and facilities.

A Community-Based Physical Education and Activity Intervention for African American Preadolescent Girls: A Strategy to Reduce Racial Disparities in Health

Physical activity habits fostered and developed early in life tend to persist into adulthood, reducing the incidence of chronic diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle in later life. This is of particular importance for racial and ethnic minority populations who experience significant disparities in rates of chronic disease. Thus, promoting physical activity in minority children is an effective strategy for reducing these health disparities. Unfortunately, however, recommendations for effective implementation of such programs are sorely lacking. This article describes the development and implementation of Lively Ladies, a physical education and activity intervention targeted to low-income, preadolescent, African American girls in a community-based youth services organization. Low-income, minority girls face the catch-22 situation of being at higher risk for physical inactivity while having limited or no access to physical fitness programs. This article demonstrates that community-based youth organizations can play an important role in changing this situation. The authors’ experience with Lively Ladies indicates the effectiveness of a theory-based program addressing modifiable psychosocial and environmental determinants of behavior. They provide recommendations to guide future design and implementation of community-based physical education and activity interventions for a population group that tends to have increased risk for physical inactivity and limited access to fitness programs and facilities.

Community-based urine screening for Chlamydia trachomatis with a ligase chain reaction assay.

Urine tests for Chlamydia trachomatis permit expansion of screening beyond traditional clinic environments. Prevention of infection in teenagers is a high priority. To define the prevalence of C. trachomatis among teenagers by using the ligase chain reaction assay on urine specimens and to evaluate leukocyte esterase testing of urine specimens as an indicator of infection. Cross-sectional study. An adolescent clinic, a juvenile detention facility, seven school-based clinics, and three community-based youth organizations in Seattle, Washington. 10,118 sexually active teenagers and young adults. Chlamydia trachomatis infection detected in urine specimens by ligase chain reaction assay and leukocyturia detected by leukocyte esterase testing. The prevalence of chlamydial infection among female participants was 8.6% and declined with increasing age; among male participants, it was 5.4% and increased with increasing age. In female participants, independent predictors of infection were being 17 years of age or younger (odds ratio [OR], 1.49), having had two or more sex partners in the previous 2 months (OR, 1.61), and having genitourinary symptoms (OR, 1.46). In male participants, independent predictors were being of nonwhite race or ethnicity (OR, 2.00 to 3.08), having had two or more sex partners in the previous 2 months (OR, 1.57), and having used a condom during the most recent sexual encounter (OR, 0.67). For identifying infection in male participants, the sensitivity of leukocyte esterase testing was 58.9%, the specificity was 94.9%, the positive predictive value was 38.4%, and the negative predictive value was 97.7%. Chlamydial infection is common in teenagers and young adults in community settings. The urine ligase chain reaction assay will permit widespread screening for C. trachomatis, but leukocyte esterase testing had low sensitivity for selecting persons for screening with this assay. Indicators of chlamydial infection differed substantially in male and female participants.

The Best of Both Worlds: Connecting Schools and Community Youth Organizations for All-Day, All-Year Learning

This article considers ways that schools and community-based youth organizations (CBOs) could build upon each other's strengths, respond explicitly to the realities of today's youth, and incorporate the attributes of the learning environments youth find most effective. Our analysis is based primarily on 5 years of field research in more than 60 successful youth organizations in three major urban communities, and it is supplemented by interviews with students participating in a comparative field study of secondary schools. We argue for serious and far-reaching rethinking of relationships among schools and other youth-based organizations in the community. In the past decade, almost unnoticed by educators, CBOs have been creating and maintaining institutions that are highly educational and keenly oriented toward preparation for employment. We call on educators to consider what it might take to enlist and elicit the best of this world to forge all-day, all-year learning opportunities for youth.