This study aims to show how digital youth leadership and activism on climate change has developed, what type of online discourse the movement has managed to channel in the fight against climate change and, above all, why the recently emerged #FridaysForFuture movement has succeeded, and not the classic adult environmental movement. The goals of…

As the infrastructure of police surveillance grows in public schools, communities must be prepared to safeguard the rights and freedoms of students and families. This report is designed to help youth justice advocates, youth leaders, educators, caregivers, and policymakers understand and challenge the impact of school surveillance, data…

The benefits of youth voice and meaningful and informed youth participation in social and systemic change initiatives are well-documented (Gonzalez et al., 2020; Gonzalez & Kokozos, 2019; Ginwright & Cammarota, 2007), and storytelling has shown promise as an effective pedagogical tool for nurturing and amplifying youth voices. Inspired by…

A majority of youth in residential facilities such as residential children's treatment centers and juvenile justice facilities have a history of exposure to traumatic events, contributing to a multitude of long-term mental and physical concerns. Residential facility teachers and staff have the unique opportunity to create trauma-informed spaces -…

Youth fields professionals create the conditions in which young people can thrive: They activate the vision for high-quality programs; develop tools, systems, and approaches for designing and sustaining such programs; and form relationships with and among participating youth. However while investments in afterschool programming have continued to…

This qualitative research aimed to identify factors contributing to the formation and development of effective partnerships that foster positive youth development. The study involved interviews with eight adult military mentors and nine youth cadet mentees to gain various perspectives regarding mentoring relationships within the youth leadership…

The place of out-of-school time programming in supporting young people's learning and growth is well established. Yet little is known about the staff and volunteers who support young people in school- and community-based afterschool programs, summer camps, national and local youth-serving organizations, and more. The Youth Fields Workforce Study…

This article examines the social media activity (Twitter) of the youth-led 'Fridays for Future' climate movement during the transition from in-person to online strikes early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim was to identify possibilities and challenges for human rights education in youth digital activism. The research question of the study was to…

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is traditionally valued for its developmental benefits for youth, such as enhancing leadership and critical thinking skills. However, this brief evidences that YPAR's potential extends significantly beyond individual growth, serving as a powerful mechanism for organizational development and academic…

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative® works to ensure that young people -- ages 14 to 26 in the United States who have spent at least one day in foster care after their 14th birthday -- have the resources, relationships and opportunities to achieve well-being and success. The Jim Casey Initiative does this by…

Leadership education is a prominent component of youth programming. In their efforts to promote leadership development, most youth programs promote character development and teach interpersonal skills but fall short in teaching leadership because they fail to encourage the use of authority. In this paper, we present the stories of five late…

Our understanding of leadership has undergone a significant shift in the early part of the 21st century. An emerging perspective, dubbed Eco-Leadership, suggests leadership is a collective process involving both leaders and followers co-creating leadership. Because our beliefs and attitudes toward leadership affect how we lead, it becomes crucial…

This paper charts the experiences of a group of young people and their involvement in a local government initiative to engage young people in public decision-making. Activated through a youth leaders' council that sought to influence and inform local government decision-making, the participating young people were given responsibility for enacting…

Commonly described as youth-led or youth-driven, the youth-adult partnership (Y-AP) model has gained increasing popularity in out-of-school time (OST) programs in the past two decades (Larson, Walker, & Pearce, 2005; Zeldin, Christens, & Powers, 2013). The Y-AP model is defined as "the practice of (a) multiple youth and multiple…

B'More Healthy Community for Kids (BHCK) is an ongoing multi-level intervention to prevent childhood obesity in African-American low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore city, MD. Although previous nutrition interventions involving peer mentoring of youth have been successful, there is a lack of studies evaluating the influence of cross-age peers…