Evolution of a Mission-Driven Youth Development Agency: Making a Difference

This report describes the evolution of a mission-driven youth development agency, Good Shepherd Services of New York City. In the more than six decades that good Shepherd Services (GSS) has served New York's neediest children and youth, it has evolved from a small provider of residential care for adolescent girls to a large, comprehensive, multi-faceted youth development, education, and family services agency. Incorporated in 1947, GSS's work on behalf of New York's most vulnerable is underscored by its original mission and core values, which are driven by the belief that despite the challenges people face, if gevn the right set of supports and opportunities, they have the ability to change and grow over time. This unique strategy and commitment to building on people's strengths rather than focusing on their deficits has shaped GSS' growth and service model of strength-based youth development

Youth engagement in high schools: Developing a multidimensional, critical approach to improving engagement for all students

What keeps students interested and engaged in school? Unfortunately, in today’s climate of increased rigor in classrooms, we are simultaneously losing sight of the need to provide students with an education that is both challenging and stimulating. In this paper, we discuss youth disengagement and offer suggestions to improve our overall knowledge of academic engagement issues. We discuss the historical concept of engagement, more specifically, its shift from a uni-dimensional to multidimensional concept, and suggest that research concentrate on better understanding the interplay among setting and identity when examining issues of youth engagement in schools. Fundamentally, we strongly assert that engagement research needs to adopt a more critical stance that provides students with opportunities to examine and to critique the educational system in which they participate (or sometimes refuse to participate). Only when students see the purpose of engaging in schools, as students and agents of change, will engagement and students’ academics and lives improve