There is a tendency in youth work to either romanticize the task – “We’re saving kids, doing the Lord’s...
“Of all the survivors of the Clinton era, the most unlikely may be AmeriCorps, the administration’s ‘national service’ program.” So wrote Les...
Much is made in the youth service field of “best practice,” as well it should be. Striving for positive results for young...
Convinced that the Younger Americans Act (YAA) is the legislative marker that could finally put youth development on the map? You are...
Americans hate adolescents and never hesitate to let them know it. How else do we explain March’s ugly rush to typecast all...
When the 107th Congress convened in January, supporters of positive youth development had great hopes for the Younger Americans Act (YAA), unveiled...
“System building is slow. …The diversity of the field has all kinds of implications. …Only a modest percentage of low-income children participate....
Congress is debating domestic taxation and spending priorities for next year and beyond. The debate has narrowed to two choices: Cut taxes...
I have written this op-ed in different forms and in different places since 1979. It is spring, and that can only mean...
I hate receptions and cocktail parties. One reason is that I am basically anti-social. Another is that I hate the inevitable question,...
Two teens are dead and 18 are wounded in more school shootings, this time in surburban San Diego. The carnage revealed some...
Scary survey finding: 300,000 (says the Hamilton Fish National Institute) to 350,000 (says the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health) youths take...
President Bush is right to make after-school programming for American teens a high priority in these early days of his administration. It...
Advocates for broader supports for children, youth and families have a common focal point: President George Bush’s tax cut proposal. Hailed by...
Great Democratic presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy extolled young people as a national inspiration deserving expansive investment. Bill Clinton led...
Just as Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush the elder promoted volunteerism, President George W. Bush preaches the gospel of redemption through the...
The achievement gap between young black and white Americans is like the Energizer Bunny: It keeps going and going and going. And...
When it comes to combating delinquency, there’s no place like home. That’s what nine months investigating America’s juvenile crime problem for the...
No matter what organization sponsors youth development work, one certain feature is some variant on citizenship values – be it called civic...
The recent White House conference on Teenagers was, for a White House that has hosted memorable events over the past two centuries,...