JPMorgan Chase & Co. began a learning and evaluation practice of its summer youth employment program (SYEP) portfolio in 2022. At the time, the organization was providing grant support to 27 organizations that offer summer work-readiness training to young people between the ages of 14 and 24, including social service agencies, community-based…

Purpose: A prior randomized trial found a school social intervention yielded significantly better outcomes (social and autism features) immediately following intervention compared to typical school programming (services-as-usual [SAU]) for children on the autism spectrum. In that study, children in the SAU condition subsequently completed a summer…

A prior randomized trial found a school social intervention yielded significantly better outcomes (social and autism features) immediately following intervention compared to typical school programming (services-as-usual [SAU]) for children on the autism spectrum. In that study, children in the SAU condition subsequently completed a summer social…

Summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) are a workforce development strategy used around the country to provide early work experiences to young people each year. These programs partner with local employers to provide subsidized wages for young people between the ages of 14 and 24. The programs often include job-readiness training (which prepares…

Assets for a Healthy Adolescence - Experiential Outdoor Service Learning (AHA-EOSL) Program, provided by Rocky Mountain Youth Corps-CO (RMYC), engaged 165 youth during summer 2021 in Youth Crews (ages 14-18) who worked together in 8-10 member for two or five weeks while performing meaningful conservation and service projects. RMYC focused on…

Assets for a Healthy Adolescence - Experiential Outdoor Service Learning (AHA-EOSL) Program, provided by Rocky Mountain Youth Corps-CO (RMYC), engaged 165 youth during summer 2021 in Youth Crews (ages 14-18) who worked together in 8-10 member crews for two or five weeks and performed meaningful conservation and service projects. RMYC focused on…

Assets for a Healthy Adolescence - Experiential Prevention (AHA-EOSL) Program, provided by Rocky Mountain Youth Corps-CO (RMYC), engaged 165 youth during summer 2021 in Community Youth Crews (ages 14-15) or Regional Youth Crews (ages 16-18). Participants in both programs lived, camped (24/7), and worked together in 8-10 member crews for two or…

The education landscape, both in and out of school, has shifted dramatically, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to digital learning. This shift has compounded the need for digital media literacy, a wide-ranging and often-changing concept that encompasses the competence to use technical equipment, intelligently consume and process information, and…

Early childhood has long been known to be a formative time in a child's development-- a time when the brain produces more than 1 million neural connections every second during the first few years of a child's life. However, there are factors at the individual and community levels that impact the development process. In communities across America,…

A variety of activities are used in camps to help promote positive youth development, improving social skills and self-esteem in campers. I expanded on previous camp research in this study to address the influence camps have on trust, belief in the honesty of others, empowerment, and care for others in youth in Eastern Europe. Since 1999, New…

There is currently a lack of theoretically based research regarding positive youth development (PYD) and youth in recreational sport settings, including residential summer sport camps. This qualitative research study explored the ways in which positive developmental experiences are facilitated at a residential summer sport camp. Using a case study…

This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD)…

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are multiplayer role-playing games that use the real world as their primary platform and incorporate a range of media, including video, audio, email, mobile technologies, websites, live performance, and social networks. This paper describes the development, implementation, and player reception of "The…

The HighScope Summer Camp for Teenagers founded by David P. Weikart in 1963, and operated until 2002, was an international, inclusive gifted education program that aided many young people, including those from disadvantaged social strata, in their personal development and shaped them in a special way. The six-week program stood for a high degree…

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if participants could improve their social interaction skills by participating in a virtual immersive environment. The participants used a developing virtual reality head-mounted display to engage themselves in a fully-immersive environment. While in the environment, participants had an opportunity…