Mentorship from within the community holds great promise for transforming the lives of young people and helping them to take full advantage of educational opportunities. This article discusses the CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) Learner Guide program, which provides mentors and role models trained by a pan-African network of women leaders.

In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 8% of youth in grades 9-12 reported being in a physical fight one or more times in the 12 months preceding the survey, with more than 7% reporting being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. Homicide is the 3rd leading cause of…

This promising practice describes a statewide effort to address the surging youth mental health crisis through the provision of Youth Mental Health First Aid training in West Virginia public schools. Youth Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based training for adults who work with youth. This interactive training increases participants'…

Traditional adult/youth mentoring programs have been associated with a host of positive academic, behavioral, and social/emotional youth outcomes. Little research, however, has been done on pre-service teacher/ youth mentoring programs; specifically if the benefits associated with more traditional mentoring programs translate into this context.…

Background: Youth-focused co-design, involving active collaboration between researchers, designers, clinicians and end users, is essential for enhancing the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs). However, most literature on co-design comes from high-income countries and offers limited…

This brief shares learnings from the community of Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) organizations and partners as they continue to deepen their practices to enhance the positive impact and durability of programming while also scaling to reach greater numbers of young people in similar situations. After a brief description of the national…

School principals are critical to students' academic achievement, second only to teachers. They are the primary agents of change in their schools, fostering supportive learning environments that enhance student learning and teacher effectiveness. Moreover, they often design and oversee the initiatives and hiring to sustain the positive changes…

Despite the strength and resilience that military families demonstrate, military youth can experience socioemotional and academic issues as a natural response to frequent change and uncertainty. Amid increased calls to support service members and their families, concerted efforts have been made to develop mentoring programs specifically for…

In the nation today, 4.6 million young adults ages 16 to 24 are out of school and unemployed. At the same time, there are roughly 7 million job openings, and employers are clamoring for skilled workers. What's wrong with this picture? These young people, commonly referred to as "opportunity youth," must overcome significant barriers to…

Intercultural Competence for Youth workers (ICY) was a project co-funded by the European Union Erasmus+ programme that ran for 14 months, from spring 2019 to spring 2020, and involved four organisations from Finland, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Engaging youth workers and young people with fewer opportunities, the project helped youth…

The positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) framework is a well-researched framework used to teach, model, and reinforce positive behavior in schools across the country. Many residential and juvenile facilities have adopted the PBIS framework to fit a 24/7 delivery model spanning facility environments and activities (known as…

Positive youth development (PYD) is a strengths-based approach used by programs to support the development of young people's skills, nurture their interests and values, seek and incorporate their input, and connect them to positive adults and useful resources. PYD and racial equity practices are complementary, and a focus on racial equity is…

Strong, caring relationships with adult and peer mentors have long played a crucial role in helping young people thrive academically and overcome challenges they face while at school and at key points in their educational journey. These mentoring relationships for students can be provided at school through volunteer programs embedded in the school…

Many Extension precollege programs seek to increase young people's interest in and aspirations toward college by fostering the development of skills that support a successful college transition. By pairing existing data with participant enrollment records, Extension professionals can more easily capture the impact of precollege programs on college…

The need for young leadership in the beef industry has become a rising concern as the average age of primary operators increases. Extension educators developed a leadership conference for beef producers with the primary objective to educate and develop leadership qualities in young cattle producers. To achieve the objective participants, age 18-40…