Increasing community awareness and knowledge about environmental problems is the primary goal of environmental education. This study explores the best practices of the Youth for Environment in Schools--Organization (YES-O) in selected schools in the National Capital Region, Philippines. A qualitative study involving interviews and focus group…

Purpose: Service-learning (SL) is a widely accepted pedagogy that can enrich the learning experience for students in higher education while they apply their skills in a meaningful community service. This research is part of a larger project that aimed to motivate educational achievement among youths living in a priority neighborhood through SL.…

4-H Youth Development prides itself on providing essential resources to reach underserved minority populations. 4-H provides programming and professional development for volunteers to include diverse hands-on training, and cultural competency workshops. This article provides best practices for the inclusion of African American volunteers in 4-H…

Even with measurable benefits of all three School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) components, implementation of each component widely varies. Not all SBAE students experience the benefits of FFA and SAE, resulting in young adults who may not be fully prepared for their careers or to enter the workforce. FFA Affiliation and SAE for All are two…

4-H, as a research-based positive youth development program, should be affirming and inclusive for all youths, including those who are members of LGBTQ+ communities. This article provides 4-H youth development professionals with a series of checklists for supporting LGBTQ+ participation, focusing on systemic advocacy, guidance and protocols,…

A literature review was conducted using the key words relating to Native American Youth and 4-H to assess the current state of 4-H youth programming serving First Nation/ Indigenous populations to inform future Extension initiatives. A systematic and qualitative review determined what level of focus the conducted programming efforts placed on…

The purpose of this study was to understand the landscape of the Sports Based Youth Development (SBYD) field, especially around areas of practical concern for program leaders, staff, and funders. This study integrates SBYD best practices from the research perspective as reflected in empirical studies and non-empirical literature and from…

Launched in 2011, Sprockets is a network of after-school and summer programs for youth in Saint Paul, MN. A 2006 community-engaged process resulted in a vision for out-of-school time (OST) in Saint Paul that became Sprockets. That process involved the mayor's office, Saint Paul Public Schools, community organizations and activists, local…

Objectives: Drug education is delivered by a broad spectrum of multi-disciplinary practitioners within the fields of health promotion, drug prevention and treatment, social care, and community and youth work. However, drug education is often misunderstood or conflated with drug information and/or drug prevention. This ambiguity of understanding is…

Youth with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) may be negatively impacted by their behavioral excesses and deficits across domains requiring more intensive supports and treatment than can be provided in a typical school. As a result, some of these youth will receive their supports and treatment from placement in a residential treatment facility…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how foster care support programs staff describe best practices to improve the financial, emotional, and academic experiences for foster care youth who matriculated into community colleges. For this study, the theoretical framework was ecological system by Urie Bronfenbrenner. This…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has proven to be an effective conduit to improved attendance scores, grades, and graduation rates; to adaptive behaviors and gainful employment in adulthood; and to a wide variety of other measurable factors spanning the spectrum of human adaptiveness and wellness (Aspen Institute, 2018). Although SEL has been…

The National Standards for Sport Coaches (NSSC) (SHAPE America -- Society of Health and Physical Educators, 2019) provide guidance to the coaching professionals who work in this wide-ranging context, regardless of what specific type of youth-sport participants they serve. Following these standards will help sport leaders create sport climates that…

This qualitative study examines the progress of a rural New Jersey school in addressing longstanding racial conflict after implementing a Youth Participatory Action Research project two years prior. Here we take up the thread as students continued to develop activities meant to increase awareness of ongoing issues, and as adults used professional…

For more than 25 years, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership has provided the youth mentoring field with a set of researched-informed and practitioner-approved practices for creating and sustaining positive and impactful mentoring relationships and strong program services. The fourth edition of "The Elements of Effective Practice for…