The academic and economic benefits of school spending are well-established, but focusing on these outcomes may underestimate the full social benefits of school spending. Recent increases in U.S. child mortality are driven by injuries and raise questions about what types of social investments could reduce child deaths. We use close school district…

At this moment, the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) has never been more important. The country is facing a dual crisis in youth unemployment and low postsecondary completion rates. Both are especially prevalent among low-income and minority young people. Across the nation, nearly 7 million young people are neither in school nor part…

Few Americans know the importance of community-based organizations, or CBOs, in helping tens of thousands of undereducated, underemployed young people find a job or go back to school. But the role of CBOs is growing more critical as the business, education, and philanthropic sectors increasingly recognize the need to enable the nation's millions…

Youth suicide is a global public health problem and some lessons for more effectively preventing it can be found in a perhaps unlikely source: the Golden Gate Bridge. Issues discussed include means restriction and method substitution, the stigma associated with suicide and the consequences of it, myths and misconceptions regarding suicide, and…

Using participatory visual research methods, this study examined how certain low-income, urban youth in a high-minority middle school characterized safe and unsafe spaces on campus. Drawing from a convenience sample of identified gifted students in one classroom (N = 20), results suggested how caring support from adults, friendly peer…

California long enjoyed rapid growth, abundant jobs, and expanding college opportunity--key elements of the California dream. Now the state is struggling to recover from its worst economic crisis in generations, a demographic slowdown, a devastating collapse of the wealth of the state' families from the housing crisis, and severe cutbacks in…

In the field of positive youth development programs, "empowerment" is used interchangeably with youth activism, leadership, civic participation and self-efficacy. However, few studies have captured what empowerment means to young people in diverse contexts. This article explores how youth define and experience empowerment in youth-led…

Successful drug education programs have common features: involvement of all segments of the community, involvement of youth in drug education programs, and informed school personnel to deal with youth. (KJ)

This document contains a narrative and tables which provide information on the characteristics of the California Youth Authority's institution, camp, and parole populations as of June 30 of each year, 1977 through 1986. The characteristics compared in the report include committing court, county of commitment, admission status, ethnicity, Youthful…

The Santa Clara County Pre-Delinquent Diversion Program is an attempt to develop and coordinate community based alternatives to the juvenile justice system. The concept of diversion is implemented at the police level by 12 law enforcement jurisdictions, each of which has shaped a distinctive approach to the problem in consonance with the nature of…

In 1992, the Annie E. Casey Foundation launched the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), which sought to demonstrate that communities could improve their detention systems without sacrificing public safety. It awarded grants to five urban jurisdictions in order to: reach consensus among all juvenile justice agencies about the purpose…

This report summarizes what is known about the children of incarcerated parents in California. The report estimates the number of children in California who have parents in the state's criminal justice system (jail, prison, parole, and probation) and summarizes key findings from the research literature on the impact of parental arrest and…

Cliff Marshall is a student in Hoopa Valley, California. As a Native American youth, he reflects on the challenges of growing up on the Hoopa reservation in northern California. He thinks that many of his native people have become lost, disordered, or fickle. He means not to take away any pride from the people, because they are very loving and…

Condensed from the 3M magazine "Education Age, Volume 5 (January-February 1969), 2-5.

Reviewed 32,928 death certificates (1970 to 1992) and found that foreign-born persons are consistently underrepresented in the suicide deaths of 15- to 34-year olds. Although Hispanics born outside the United States are consistently at significantly lower risk of suicide than U.S.-born Hispanics, the discrepancy between the two groups has…