Youth-CLD Articles & Abstracts

Youth-CLD References & Abstracts

Blanchet-Cohen, Natasha, Sarah Manolson, and Katie Shaw. “Youth-Led Decision Making in Community Development Grants.” Youth & Society 46, no. 6 (November 2014): 819–34. doi:10.1177/0044118X12455024.

Abstract: This study examines youth-led decision making (YLDM) among groups of youth who are providers or recipients of community development grants. Focus groups, interviews, and participant observation with 14- to 20-year-olds and supporting adults showed youth have a preference for consensus-based decisions. Youth used due process to reach decisions while valuing differing viewpoints. Adults created appropriate spaces and guided without controlling. Youth directly involved in the YLDM process experienced the greatest and most immediate benefit though other youth, and the community as a whole also felt positive impacts over time. The study considers the type of supports required for young people to make meaningful decisions and points to the capacity of youth, and the potential of YLDM, for community development.

Ndinga-Kanga, Masana. Local Networks for Peace: Lessons from Community-Led Peacebuilding. Report. Edited by CONNOLLY LESLEY and POWERS LAURA. International Peace Institute, 2018. 55-59. doi:10.2307/resrep19651.10.

Abstract: This report explores one of these peacebuilding networks in contemporary South Africa: the Community Action Groups (CAGs), which were convened by a formal nongovernmental organization called the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR). CSVR formed the CAGs as a formal network, and it serves as the central body that facilitates shared learning and development across them to ensure they are working toward common peacebuilding objectives. This report unpacks the role the CAGs can play in ending violence and the structural, political, and economic challenges they face.

Schusler, Tania M., Jacqueline Davis-Manigaulte, and Amy Cutter-Mackenzie. “POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT.” In Urban Environmental Education Review, edited by Russ Alex and Krasny Marianne E., 165-74. ITHACA; LONDON: Cornell University Press, 2017. www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1qv5qhq.21.

Abstract: Environmental education is often associated with environmental learning and pro-environmental behaviors. Some approaches to environmental education, however, also enable young people’s personal growth through the development of confidence, self-efficacy, and other assets that support an individual’s well-being. This chapter explores the intersection of urban environmental education and positive youth development. It can inform teachers, environmental educators, science educators, youth workers, and others who want to advance environmental learning and advance a positive developmental trajectory for young people in varied educational settings, such as school classrooms, after-school programs, community organizations, youth development organizations, churches, camps nature centers, science centers, museums, and gardens. We begin by defining positive youth development and applying it to environmental education. We then describe three programs from the United States and Australia to illustrate different pedagogies for integrating positive youth development in environmental education aimed at urban sustainability. By “youth,” we refer to the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, which varies across cultures. The United Nations defines youth as individuals age fifteen to twenty-four, but others include children younger than fifteen or young adults older than twenty-four in their definitions. The programs we describe also included some children younger than fifteen.

Ssewamala, F. M., Han, C.-K., & Neilands, T. B. Asset ownership and health and mental health functioning among AIDS-orphaned adolescents: Findings from a randomized clinical trial in rural Uganda. Social Science & Medicine, 69(2), (2009). 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.05.019

Abstract: This study evaluated an economic empowerment intervention designed to promote life options, health and mental health functioning among AIDS-orphaned adolescents in rural Uganda. The study used an experimental design in which adolescents (N 1⁄4 267) were randomly assigned to receive an economic empowerment intervention or usual care for orphaned children. The study measured mental health functioning using 20 items of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS: 2)da standardized measure for self-esteem and measured overall health using a self-rated health measure. Data obtained at 10-month follow-up revealed significant positive effects of the economic empowerment intervention on adolescents’ self-rated health and mental health functioning. Additionally, health and mental health functioning were found to be positively associated with each other. The findings have implications for public policy and health programming for AIDS-orphaned adolescents.