Background: Amidst rapid developmental changes, refugee-background adolescents (RBAs) face unique challenges during resettlement, including adapting to new cultures, languages, and educational systems, while often dealing with pre-migration trauma. These youth need support to navigate educational and career pathways in their host countries. Using…

In urban secondary schools where underpreparation and dropping out are real world concerns, students understand that their relationships with teachers affect their learning. Using descriptive coding and thematic analysis of focus group data, we explore adolescents' perceptions of the "bridges" that foster and the "barriers"…

This article outlines how gay-straight alliances (GSAs) work to connect youth with community resources, and outlines the political and social context of GSAs in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Fifteen individuals (youth, teachers, and a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ] youth service provider) participated in interviews…

Translational research (Pentz, Jasuja, Rohrbach, Sussman, & Bardo, 2006; Woolf, 2008) is concerned with moving advances in prevention science into everyday practice in communities, yet there are few models for ensuring this transfer of knowledge. Communities That Care (CTC) provides a planned, structured, and data-driven system that trains…

The goal in this collection of 22 essays is to consider youth policy based on the themes of promoting youth development, building supportive communities, and reforming systems/linking services. These themes arise from the editors' and contributors' belief that policy makers, program planners, practitioners and researchers need to recognize and…

This publication is part of a series of tools and resources on financing and sustaining youth programming. These tools and resources are intended to help policymakers, program developers, and community leaders develop innovative strategies for implementing, financing, and sustaining effective programs and policies. This strategy brief presents a…

Educational researchers have paid little attention to "critique"--an activity young artists routinely use to assess and advance their creative projects. It is an activity from which they have a lot to learn, particularly in the context of community-based arts collaboratives. In school classrooms where teachers emphasize group projects…

With the nation's recent emphasis on student test scores, The Children's Aid Society fears that schools are missing the opportunity to be the institutions that help turn out successful young people. School climate and connectedness are the key ingredients for creating healthy schools that produce successful students. These factors are worthy of…

Sustainability seems generally thought to mean raising money. But money is only part of the equation. Money cannot be raised without a quality program, a quality program demonstrates results, effective results are based on sound management practices, etc. Sustainability therefore, is many things that in combination make something capable of…

"Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development: Lessons and Voices from the Field," published by the Forum in partnership with the Urban Libraries Council, captures key challenges and lessons learned from an innovative, four-year initiative sponsored by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds that awarded six million dollars to nine…

Intended for use by council and staff members as well as individuals in communities that are considering forming or joining an education work council, this report discusses the nature, function, and growth and development of work education councils and examines the collaborative processes that councils engage in. The education and work council…