Youth-Adult Partnerships in Decision Making: Disseminating and Implementing an Innovative Idea into Established Organizations and Communities

The principles and processes for engaging youth-adult partnerships (Y-AP) in organizational and community decision making have often been articulated from developmental and social justice perspectives. A broad empirical foundation for Y-AP has been established. Y-AP remains an innovative idea in the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of community psychology 2008-06, Vol.41 (3-4), p.262-277
Main Authors: Zeldin, Shepherd, Petrokubi, Julie, MacNeil, Carole
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Communities
Community and Environmental Psychology
Community health care
Community Participation
Cooperative Behavior
Decision Making
Diffusion of Innovation
Focus Groups
Health Psychology
Human Development
Humans
Innovation
Intergenerational Relations
Interviews as Topic
Local government
Original Paper
Personality and Social Psychology
Program Development
Psychology
Public Health
Social Justice
United States of America
Wisconsin
Youth
Youth development
Youth participation
Youth-adult partnership
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The principles and processes for engaging youth-adult partnerships (Y-AP) in organizational and community decision making have often been articulated from developmental and social justice perspectives. A broad empirical foundation for Y-AP has been established. Y-AP remains an innovative idea in the United States, however. The belief that youth and adults can, and should, collaborate on issues of importance runs counter to prevailing policies, institutional structures, and community norms. 4-H Youth Development is one public system that is actively seeking to disseminate and implement Y-AP. 4-H Youth Development seeks to integrate Y-AP into its own governance structures as well as those of local government and community coalitions. Through qualitative analysis of the efforts in one Midwestern state, this study examines the contextual challenges faced by county staff—the providers of program support within 4-H Youth Development—and the ways in which county staff respond to these obstacles. This project identifies the goals, leverage points, and strategies through which county staff seek to integrate Y-AP into established forums of decision making. Implications for the dissemination and implementation of principle and process-based innovation are offered, with special attention to the role of the program support system.
ISSN:0091-0562
1573-2770
DOI:10.1007/s10464-008-9158-z