Summer camps are a common youth development setting in North America; however, youth from low-income backgrounds often cannot attend because of financial barriers. Subsequently, although a robust camp literature exists, little is known about the lasting benefits for youth from low-income backgrounds. Even less is known about how these outcomes may…

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…

Thirteen per cent of all 16-24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). This equates to nearly one million young people who are not currently learning or earning. The long-term scarring impact of being NEET for a sustained period of time on young people, society, and the economy, is well known. It is therefore of…

This study explores the experiences of racially minoritized youth activists involved in the climate justice movement. From July to October of 2023, I conducted semi-structured narrative interviews with 15 Black, Indigenous, and youth of colour in Ontario, aged 18 to 29, who had been affiliated with a climate justice organization for at least six…

This paper aims to provide strategies for youth-serving organizations to maximize opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills within the out-of-school time program context. The sample includes 5 youth-serving agencies who participated in the Youth Driven Spaces initiative led by a Midwest program. Data for this project included…

Within our rapidly changing and growing global society, adolescent development into adulthood remains a pervasive issue that youth serving institutions and youth engagement practitioners across the world must address. While literature shows that there are numerous factors that contribute to the physical, mental, and social-emotional development of…

Young adults today are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in many countries worldwide. The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints while both the…

Background: Many students would benefit from trauma-informed physical activity (PA); however, there is a lack of systematic guidance on incorporating trauma-informed practices across school-based PA opportunities. The purpose of this study was to generate a feasible framework for trauma-informed school-based PA. Methods: Framework development was…

ABSTRACT Ageism against older adults has been well studied, yet adolescents also experience ageism in pervasive and harmful ways. In this article, we describe anti-youth ageism as a system of oppression that encompasses negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination against adolescents that uphold power hierarchies and marginalize young…

Attention to emotion could offer insight into supporting the science-informed civic participation of young people. We drew on sociocultural views of emotion, civic participation, and science literacies to examine digital civic media about climate change produced by youth during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, investigating intersections of…

This brief examines the challenges youth face in the current job market and proposes recommendations for a national subsidized employment program that prioritizes equity and amplifies youth voices. The insights provided in this brief are informed by several listening sessions with members of the Communities Collaborating to Reconnect Youth Network…

This article uses a framework that combines LatCrit theory, racist nativism, and liberating pedagogy of praxis (LPP) to examine how a community youth program's LPP practices countered the racist nativism Latinx youth experience in their high school. LPP practices challenged racist nativism by creating a space where Latinx youth faced each other in…

This paper critically evaluates the concept of innovation, in the context of the funding of youth work within Erasmus+ Key Acton 2, but the findings are applicable to other settings which emphasise innovation. The paper argues that, first, innovation is problematic because it lacks a definition. Second, innovation is founded on a neoliberal…

Youth with disabilities continue to experience poor post-school outcomes as compared to their peers without disabilities. In this multilevel study, we used an intersectional lens to examine college and career readiness (CCR) among youth with and without disabilities (N = 3523). A CCR assessment yielded four domain scores: Academic Engagement and…

Purpose: This study aims to explore how youth express empathy as an aspect of social action. Social empathy was investigated among adolescents participating in a youth organizing initiative. Design/methodology/approach: This study used elements of critical discourse analysis to examine participant expression of social empathy through examination…