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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

Civic engagement starts with our nation's young people, since engagement in adolescence increases the likelihood of engagement in adulthood. As 3 in 4 superintendents agree that preparing students for engaged citizenship is a challenge for their district, it is important to recognize that afterschool and summer learning programs are critical…

Dr. Jeffrey Sprague is a professor of special education and the director of the University of Oregon Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior. He directs research and demonstration projects related to positive supports and youth violence prevention.

The Department for Education commissioned Learning and Work Institute to undertake a review to collate and synthesise the range of evidence on challenging education, employment and training disengagement and inactivity amongst young people aged 15-24. The Government has committed to providing effective early intervention for young people at-risk…

The effort described in this article resulted from requests for clarity and consistency from new and existing Extension/4-H educators as well as from recommendations by university auditors. The primary purpose of the effort was to clarify standards for effective county-based 4-H youth development programs and to help focus the roles of 4-H…

The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) has worked closely with stakeholders at the national, state, local, and institutional level to develop a deeper understanding of what alternative education settings do well, areas for improvement, opportunities for innovation, and issues requiring further inquiry. Collaboration with these stakeholders, as…

Despite the growing number of evidence-based programs (EBPs) for youth and families, few are well-integrated in service systems or widely adopted by communities. One set of challenges to widespread adoption of EBPs relates to the transfer of programs from research and development to practice settings. This is often because program developers have…

The District of Columbia's Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012 (YBPA; DC Law L19-167) requires the mayor to review the programs, activities, services, and policies established as a result of the Act; report the current status of bullying in the District of Columbia; and provide recommendations for the continued implementation of the Act. The…

South Carolina (SC) is a leading state for the delivery of comprehensive school mental health (SMH) services, involving mental health education system partnerships. Currently, more than 60% of SC schools include mental health clinicians from the state Department of Mental Health; there is a widely endorsed goal 100% of SC schools to have at least…

Youth mentoring programs have been on the rise for the past few decades, yet little has been done to synthesize best practices, as identified in existing research, for programs or mentors to follow. In a review of the literature on mentoring, eight different types of mentoring relationships were identified along with four program best practices…