While research abounds on the outcomes of out-of-school time programs for youth, most studies focus on programs with similar profiles or within the same program category, leaving a notable gap in examining youth experiences across programs with different delivery modes. The current research investigated the perceived experiences of youth in two…

For many years, those who work in the mentoring field have wondered how they can extend the impact of their programs beyond the benefits experienced by young people they serve. There has been an increasing desire within our field to harness the power of mentoring to enable the youth served in a program to not just grow individually, but to…

This paper explores the external developmental assets and how they manifest in specific youth programs from Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras. An evaluation process was created through a qualitative phenomenological with the youth programs' leadership. To triangulate the data, a survey was developed and piloted with a small sample from three youth…

As low-income youth of color seek to persevere and succeed against the odds, afterschool programs have become a growing resource and support for many of these low-income youth and their families. However, the body of research concerning the impact of afterschool programs is largely inconclusive and there is still a growing urgency to determine the…

The Global Resilience Oral Workshops (GROW) Free and Strong programs take a strengths-based, positive youth development (PYD) approach to promoting thriving. Through both prevention (GROW Strong) and intervention (GROW Free) exercises, these programs aim to build character and emotional resilience while also lowering unhealthy alcohol use. To…

The purpose of this study was to explore potential effects of a 12-week therapeutic mentoring program targeting social, emotional, and behavioral concerns in 52 children and adolescents between 11 and 17 years of age. Self-reported scores on a norm-referenced behavioral questionnaire were tracked across the span of a mentoring program, and then…

This dissertation consists of two chapters that examine the impact of educational and positive youth development programs on students' academic and behavioral outcomes. In the first chapter, I evaluate the effect of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, a school meal provision allowing schools meeting the eligibility requirements to…

Although US teenage birth rates substantially decreased over the past two decades, it still remains the highest in the developed world. More innovative, community-wide initiatives are needed to combat the issue. In Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration is utilizing the collective impact model to…

Funded through the New York City Young Men's Initiative (YMI), the Cornerstone Mentoring Program is designed to support youth in key life and educational transitions as they progress into middle and high school, through the development of relationships with positive and caring adults. Launched in 2012, the mentoring program is implemented in…

The following document is a curriculum evaluation of an English education program, "Syde by Syde," for at-risk youths and their mothers in non-profit institution, FundaVida, in three urban communities in the South of San Jose, Costa Rica. The evaluation is based on Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, Product Model of curriculum…

The New York City Young Men's Initiative (YMI) is a cross-agency initiative that aims to address the disparities in socioeconomic outcomes between young Black and Latino men and their peers. In support of this vision, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched a mentoring program in its Cornerstone Community…

Many studies have highlighted the capacity of community arts programs to re-engage those young people considered at-risk of disconnection from future education and/or employment. "Evolution" is an artist-guided visual arts program established for young people challenged by mental health and social issues that aims to foster re-engagement…

YouthBuild is intended to help high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24, who face an array of impediments to their educational and employment success as they progress into adulthood. Stemming from one program launched in the late 1970s, today over 270 YouthBuild programs operate nationwide. YouthBuild is a principles-based model that values a…

Background: Due to the rising demands for a Canadian workforce with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related education, there is a need to increase youth engagement in STEM education and programming. Research, however, has shown that youth residing in low-income communities are disproportionately affected by psychosocial barriers,…

Evaluations of a large federally funded sexual risk avoidance education (SRAE) efforts in the USA have not been widely reported in the wake of funding cuts. The purpose of this study is to report results from a broad set of programmes to demonstrate the breadth of field effectiveness of these programmes. Twenty-seven separate community-based SRAE…