Service-Learning in Community-Based Organizations: A Practical Guide to Starting and Sustaining High-Quality Programs

Whether you’re new to service-learning or have been doing it for years, this guide gives you and your organization the tips, tools, and techniques you need to start making a positive difference in many people’s lives by providing high-quality opportunities for youth to serve and learn

Teen Voice 2009: The Untapped Strengths of 15-Year-Olds

Based on a survey, explores how interests that give teenagers purpose, engagement with civic and social issues, and relationships and opportunities that encourage and guide them can shape their choices and potential. Recommends actions to support teens

Families and communities together: strength and resilience during early adolescence

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2013. Major: Education, Curriculum and Instruction. Advisor: Yvonne S. Gentzler. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 240 pages, appendices A-B.Grounded in a bioecological understanding of human development, this study examined the contributions of internal family strengths and family-community connections to youth well-being during early adolescence. Using a diverse dataset of about 1,498 families with 10- to 15-year-olds, the study explored whether and how strengths within families (Internal Family Assets) and family interactions with community were associated with six indicators of youth well-being: self-regulation, social competencies, school engagement, health behaviors, personal responsibility, and caring. In addition, it examined the extent to which these factors contributed to resilience, ameliorating the potentially deleterious effects of stressful life events on youth well- being. The study found that: (1) the level of Internal Family Assets was a much stronger predictor of family-community connections than youth, family, or community covariates; (2) the extent of Formal and Informal Community Supports for Families was modestly associated with youth well-being after accounting for covariates and Internal Family Assets; (3) the interactions between Internal Family Assets and family-community connections suggest that some family-community connections bolster the effect of Internal Family Assets on social competencies and caring; and (4) youth who have experienced high levels of Stressful Life Events have greater odds of experiencing high levels of well-being if they experience higher levels of Internal Family Assets and family-community connections. The findings invite increased attention to the ways in which families are engaged in communities, with particular focus on the importance of strengthening informal supports and engaging families as contributors to community life

Is there common ground? An exploratory study of the interests and needs of community-based and faith-based workers

In the spring of 2007, ACA religiously-affiliated (RA) (n=89) and secular camps (n=214) from across the country participated in a study entitled “Is There Common Ground?” conducted by ACA, the Search Institute, and the National Collaboration for Youth. The ACA focus in the project was to explore the core competencies of staff working in both types of camps as well as their interests in and concerns about working together. The camp sample included a diverse set of camps, representing resident camps (64 percent); day camps (16 percent); and both resident and day camps (19 percent). Christianity was the most common religious affiliation of RA camps. Secular camps tended to be “independent nonprofit camps” (39 percent); “agency camps” (33 percent); or “independent for-profit camps” (22 percent)

The Role of Neighborhood and Community in Building Developmental Assets for Children and Youth: A National Study of Social Norms Among American Adults El Rol del Vecindario y la Comunidad en la Promoción de Competencias Evolutivas en Niños y Jóvenes: Un Estudio Nacional de Normas Sociales en Adultos Norteamericanos

Unrelated adults play potentially important roles in the positive socialization of children and youth, but studies of adolescents suggest the majority of adults do not engage positively with young people on an intentional, frequent, and deep basis. As a result, only a minority of young people report experiencing key developmental assets that have been associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors and increased thriving. Social norms theory suggests that adults will be more likely to get deeply involved with young people outside their family if that involvement is viewed as highly important, and if they perceive a social expectation to do so. A nationally representative sample of 1,425 U.S. adults was surveyed to determine the degree of importance American adults ascribed to 19 positive asset-building actions, and the degree to which the adults they knew actually engaged with young people outside their own families in those positive ways. The results showed that only a minority of Americans experience consistent normative motivation for engaging with other people's children. There is a large gap between what adults consider important and what they actually do to construct positive, intentional relationships with children and youth. Community stability and extent of community-building activities in which adults engage, including participation in religious services, volunteering, and neighborhood meetings, are associated with differences among adults in the degree of normative motivation for engaging with young people. In addition to these group differences, however, there also are nine asset-building actions -two functioning as genuine social norms and seven as social values- that great majorities of American adults consider highly important. The foundation therefore exists in public opinion to make explicit greater permission for adults to become more deeply engaged in the lives of children outside their families and to thereby define new normative expectations for all adults to share in being responsible for the well-being of young people. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Los adultos no familiares juegan potencialmente roles importantes en la socialización positiva de niños y jóvenes, pero estudios de adolescentes sugieren que la mayoría de los adultos no se involucran positivamente con jóvenes de manera intencional, frecuente y profunda. Como resultado, sólo una minoría de jóvenes reportan experimentar competencias evolutivas fundamentales que han sido asociadas con una reducción de comportamientos riesgosos y un aumento de conductas positivas. La teoría de las normas sociales sugiere que es más probable que los adultos se involucren intensamente con jóvenes no familiares si ese involucramiento es visto como muy importante, y si perciben una expectativa social de que lo hagan. Una muestra representativa nacional de 1425 adultos estadounidenses fue encuestada para determinar el grado de importancia que le atribuían a 19 acciones positivas de desarrollo de competencias, y el grado en que adultos que ellos conocían se involucraban en acciones de este tipo con jóvenes que no formaban parte de sus familias. Los resultados mostraron que sólo una minoría de estadounidenses experimentaron motivación normativa consistente para involucrarse con los hijos de otros. Hay una gran brecha entre lo que los adultos consideran importante y lo que realmente hacen para construir relaciones positivas e intencionales con niños y jóvenes. La estabilidad de la comunidad y el grado en que los adultos se involucran con actividades de fortalecimiento de la comunidad, incluyendo participación en ceremonias religiosas, voluntariado y encuentros de vecindario, son asociados con diferencias en la motivación de los adultos para involucrarse con jóvenes. Sin embargo, además de estas diferencias de grupo, hay también nueve acciones de desarrollo de competencias -dos que funcionan como normas sociales genuinas y siete como valores sociales- que una gran mayoría de estadounidenses consideran altamente importantes. Por lo tanto, existen en la opinión pública los fundamentos para explicitar un mayor permiso para que los adultos se involucren más profundamente en las vidas de menores que no forman parte de sus familias y así definir nuevas expectativas normativas para que todos los adultos compartan la responsabilidad por el bienestar de los jóvenes