Implementation of youth development programs: promise and challenges

• Published in: Journal of adolescent health 2005-09, Vol.37 (3), p.S61-S68
• Main Authors: Gallagher, Kaia M., Stanley, Amie, Shearer, Darlene, Mosca, Cecilia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Adolescents; Biological and medical sciences; Capacity building approach; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Coalitions; Community Health Planning; Community-based health promotion; Data Collection; Demonstration projects; Family planning; Female; Health Promotion; Humans; Medical sciences; Mental health; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Pregnancy; Pregnancy in Adolescence - prevention & control; Prevention. Health policy. Planification; Program Evaluation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Teen pregnancy prevention; United States; Unwanted pregnancy; Youth development; Youth development programmes
• ISSN: 1054-139X; 1879-1972
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.05.006

The Community Coalition Partnership Program for the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy provided a unique laboratory for observing how youth development projects were implemented in 13 community-based settings. This article focuses on the scope of these efforts, the content of the projects, and their expected outcomes. The investigators inventoried all youth development activities created within the grantee communities between 1997 and 2000 and then surveyed 28 site representatives by telephone. The scope and content of the identified youth development programs were compared with national registries of other such programs. The youth development efforts implemented by the 13 grantees were diverse, multi-faceted, and broad in scope. Most were short-term, but reflected a broad base of support for youth development principles among various community partners. Of the array of youth development efforts developed, more than two-thirds targeted three program areas: community services/outreach, education/training programs, or mentoring programs—a pattern found among youth development programs throughout the country. Within this partnership, youth development was a better-received framework for mobilizing community partners than were more traditional pregnancy prevention approaches. Communities were successful in creating diverse programs that may have benefits for individual youth, service agencies, and the community at large.