Youth Today

Can Youth Development Programs Contribute to Academic Success?

A hot topic in the world of after-school and youth development programs is their role in promoting young people’s academic success. Often...

Not Sick Enough

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced some positive news at its first National Children’s Mental Health...

Policy and Practice: Will The Gap Ever Close?

Youth workers’ lack of knowledge about and engagement in public policy issues has been noted time and time again at professional gatherings...

Who Are the Immigrants

“In time, the experience of the children of immigrants became the experience of all American children, who now were the representatives of...

On a Path Toward Thriving

As caring adults in the lives of youth, many of us are privileged to witness young people discover an aspect of themselves...

Race, Class, Culture And Perceived Entitlements

Bear with me. I’m trying to make sense of a series of writings spread before me that speak to how race, class...

The Quality Conundrum

Conventional wisdom says the quality of youth work programs rests in no small measure on the quality of the program staff. But...

The New Isolationists?

I have heard it all too often in youth program circles: “The United States should focus on the challenges right here between...

Drive-By Journalism

To grasp the appalling meanness of the American Automobile Association’s latest media attack on teenagers, consider the tragedy of Travis Bosse. He...

America’s Overpaid Promise

The February edition of Youth Today arrived one recent day, and as I do every year with this particular issue, I flipped...

What Part of Mediocre Don’t We Get?

We hear it all the time. We hear it from the podium and the pulpit, from policymakers and pundits: Children are...

Secret to Success: Deliver Meaning

Accomplishment. Beauty. Community. Creation. Duty. Those are five of the 15 “meanings” identified in a hot new business book about the bottom-line...

Forget Hip-Hop; Get YCC

A civil war is brewing in youth work force development centers. It pits many veteran youth workers against a younger crowd that...

MySpace.com Menaces Teens? C’mon!

Many parents think their children are safe in one of our most hallowed institutions, until they discover its dark side: violence, sexual...

Age of Aquarius Meets Era of Accountability

I recently participated in back-to-back meetings about outcomes of community schools and after-school programs. At each event, leaders in the field gathered...