Program quality is an important topic for improving out-of-school time youth development programs. High levels of program quality may contribute to enhanced positive youth development outcomes. This paper explores aspects of program quality in the California 4-H Youth Development Program and its relationship to positive youth development outcomes.…

Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being. In recent years, virtual mentoring has emerged as a promising way to expand the provision of mentoring. By engaging virtually, mentorship programs can…

A pioneer effort when passed as a bipartisan bill into legislation in 1991, California's Healthy Start initiative now stands out as a promising model for the emerging community school movement. Healthy Start is intended to bring "comprehensive, integrated, supports and services" to California's most disadvantaged K-12 students and…

The Community Science Workshops (CSWs)--with funding from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation--created a network among the CSW sites in California. The goals of the CSW Network project have been to improve programs, build capacity throughout the Network, and establish new sites. Inverness Research has been…

As the only federal funding stream that provides dedicated funds for afterschool programs across the country, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative plays an important role in supporting the innovation that takes place in afterschool programs. Social innovation has been defined as "a novel solution to a social…

Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD) has served the San Francisco Bay Area for the past twelve years as a youth development intermediary organization offering support, training, and capacity building resources to youth-serving organizations and programs. This report discusses CNYD's capacity-building approach. CNYD has developed a…

In response to the problems caused by categorical funding for services to children and families, the National Commission on Children recommended a series of changes in the organization, administration, and implementation of programs at all levels of government, to encourage a more collaborative and comprehensive service delivery system, including…

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Labor and Council of Chief State School Officers awarded grants for the development of statewide systems to enhance school-to-work transition (SWT) through youth apprenticeship in eight states: California, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In June 1993, the programs were…