Members might brainstorm for ideas, but essentially, you will want to try to answer two questions:. Especially if your group is affiliated with a larger organization, such as a school, church, or national group, there are probably resources out there that could help you. Find out what they are, and how you can get them transferred to your organization. In addition to groups you are affiliated with somehow, there might be other sources willing to support a youth organization.
Grants or mini-grants might be available from the government, private sources, or local coalitions; other organizations with similar goals might be willing to help you out. This support can come in many different forms, from money to a meeting place to free advertising. Ask around; see what resources similar organizations, either in your town or similar places, have managed to get, and ask how they've gotten them.
The United Way might be able to point you to some resources as well. And beyond all of that, the simplest thing to do is think about what you need, and who is likely to be able to give that to you most easily. Need paint? Try asking the owner of the local hardware store. Need publicity? Call the local radio station, and ask what their policy is for producing and airing public service announcements PSAs.
And so on. Once you've found out what is possible, go for it! And don't forget a thank you note to whoever helps you out. It can be hard and sometimes frightening! This can be especially true for young people, who might find the idea of going in and trying to speak with a bank president to be daunting. Remember, though, that you're not asking for help for yourself--you're asking them to support a cause you believe in.
So square your shoulders and give it a try. The only sure thing is that if you don't ask, you won't get the help your organization needs. This step may be less necessary in some situations than in others. If you're developing an informal rap group for teen parents, there probably isn't a whole lot of training involved.
But in any group, it's important that you sit down at the very start and talk about what is expected from both staff if there are any involved and from participants. For example, even in our hypothetical rap group mentioned above, there will be some ground work to do: You might want facilitators to do some reading about teen parents especially if they don't have much experience with them , or about learning to be an effective facilitator.
At the first meeting, the facilitator might then take some time to show the parents around the facilities, lead an "ice-breaker " so the teens will feel more comfortable speaking openly, and help them develop "ground rules" that will be followed in future meetings.
Now that you've decided what you want to do, go to it! With the hard work of planning behind you at least for the moment--there will always be changes on the way , it's time take a deep breath and go to it! Even if something wasn't the huge success you hoped it would be, everyone should give themselves proper credit for what has been accomplished.
Organizing a youth group of any kind is hard work. Be sure to celebrate all of your small successes along the way. Not only do you deserve it, but celebrating will also help keep energy high, so your group will be able to move on to bigger and better things. There's no question that being an adult mentor or facilitator for a youth organization can be hard work, especially if this is the first time you have done so.
However, it can also be a richly rewarding experience. Some of the tips below might help you in your quest to run a fun, successful organization for youth without pulling out all of your hair in the process. Youth organizations can offer terrific benefits to local young people and the community at large.
They can have a tremendous impact on the lives of youth. Whether you are a young person yourself, or simply someone concerned about your community, we encourage you to explore the creation of a youth organization in your community today! Youth Tree USA. This website allows nonprofit organizations to list and explain their organizations free of charge, and also offers youth a place to develop their own website.
Youth Tree USA's mission is:. The Coach's Playbook Against Drugs. Leonard, M. Paper planes: Travelling the new grrrl geographies. Cool places: Geographies of youth cultures. London, England: Routledge, McLauglin, M. Urban sanctuaries. Partners for Youth Leadership Youth involvement: Developing leaders and strengthening communities. Tlingit-Haida builds youth identity, leadership , April. Building partnerships for better communities. Wolff, T. Principles of success in building community coalitions.
In Gillian, K. From the ground up. Available from Tom Wolff and Associates. Skip to main content. Toggle navigation Navigation. Providing Information and Enhancing Skills » Section 9. Establishing Youth Organizations » Main Section. Chapter Chapter 20 Sections Section 6. Training for Conflict Resolution Section 8.
Establishing Youth Organizations Section Developing a Speaker's Bureau Section Implementing a Neighborhood Watch. The Tool Box needs your help to remain available. Toggle navigation Chapter Sections. Section 6. Main Section Checklist PowerPoint. Learn how to start a youth-driven organization focused on issues they care about.
What form can a youth organization take? Why establish youth organizations? Who should establish youth organizations? When should you establish a youth organization? Private community groups i. Public-sector institutions i. In addition to these categories, the committee also recognized that institutional collaborations, such as school-based programs being run by community-based organizations, offer many programs for youth.
There is great diversity in the specific focus and character of community programs for youth. Community Counts, for example, examined community organizations that differed in nearly every objective way possible McLaughlin, The Younger Americans Act discussed in Chapter 9 , introduced in the Senate in September and the House in January , included a useful list of youth program activities:.
Sports, recreation, and other activities promoting physical fitness and teamwork;. Services that promote health and healthy development and behavior on the part of youth, including risk avoidance programs;. Workforce preparation, youth entrepreneurship, and technological and vocational skill building, including computer skills;. Special-interest groups or courses, including video production, cooking, gardening, pet care, photography, and other youth-identified interests; and.
Public and private youth-led programs, including ones provided by youth-serving or youth development organizations.
To this list, the committee added program activities associated with such developmental passage rituals as bat and bar mitzvahs, American Indian rite of passage rituals, and Christian first communion and confirmation ceremonies. There is little comprehensive information on the prevalence and distribution of the various community programs for youth in this country.
Based on data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, this study concluded that there were 17, active youth organizations in the United States in No other national studies as comprehensive as this have been undertaken in the past decade, a period when there has been considerable increases in funding and opportunity for these programs.
A variety of independent efforts to compile information about a particular set of youth programs have been conducted, but they are neither comprehensive nor national in their scope National Collaboration for Youth, The committee mapped the features of settings developed in the Chapter 4 against various program illustrations and drew some conclusions about effective strategies to incorporating features of positive developmental settings.
While there are fairly obvious links between some program dimensions and features of settings, there is also a great deal of overlap. For instance, programs that develop clear and consistent rules of behavior demonstrate appropriate structure; at the same time, these rules may help nurture an environment that promotes physical and psychological safety.
Physical and psychological safety is fundamental to attract young people to programs and to keep them coming back. This requires both creating an environment that is safe, as well as handling conflicts among participants as they arise. The objective of some programs is to enable youth to just participate in safe environments free from pressures associated with violence and substance abuse.
In many cases, accessibility makes a difference to safety, which in turn often affects participation. Some programs or facilities are too far for youth to get to conveniently, requiring a bus ride or long walk through uncertain neighborhoods. Hours of operation matter, too. Programs unavailable until after six in the evening, for example, have difficulty attracting youth at all Cahill et al. Programs operating only one evening a week or that are closed on weekends also seem insufficient to sustain youth interest.
Sometimes maintaining an atmosphere of safety requires denying some young people participation. Directors describe the process as a sort of triage, in which difficult decisions are sometimes made to deny needy and deserving youth a place in the organization for the sake of the whole.
For example, the director of HOME in Alameda, California, pays close attention to school records and will not accept or continue to involve youth with consistent records of failure. The director explained that they could not serve everyone and still have an environment that is safe and supportive for everyone. It also means that youth who could benefit from and contribute to the organization may be denied a space simply because the program is full.
Several prevention studies have also documented a negative effect of programs that focus exclusively on adolescents already engaged in risky. For example, programs that put together a group of young people who are all already involved in problem behaviors often produce increases in the very behaviors the programs were designed to reduce Dishion et al. These negative effects have been interpreted as the consequence of participation in a peer group comprised primarily of adolescents already actively involved in troubling behaviors.
Appropriate structure in community programs for youth includes developing clear and consistent rules and expectations, setting limits, and being clear about behavioral expectations. Settings with appropriate structure have predictability and consistency. The staff develop clear boundaries that take into consideration the age and developmental maturity of the youth involved.
Appropriate structure is often based on the rules maintained by a program. Rules of membership, such as bans on gang colors, weapons, drugs, and alcohol, are an essential set of agreements and understandings; also important are rules about members treating each other and the adult leaders with honesty, and teamwork. Youth report that these guidelines for behavior are elemental to their own feelings of safety and comfort—especially as the program environment provides a safe haven in their neighborhood McLaughlin et al.
Appropriate structure is also based on the focus of the program and its underlying curriculum. Many community programs for youth attract young people of varying ages.
Programs may explicitly seek to make the curriculum and program activities also reflect different developmental needs. Programs that focus on supportive relationships provide settings in which youth feel a strong sense of warmth, closeness, caring, support, and guidance from the adult leaders in the program.
Community programs for youth provide opportunities to expose young people to caring adults who challenge them, encourage them to participate in positive experiences, and respect their opinions.
Youth respondents to the Community Impact! This may be one of the most important characteristics of highly valued programs McLaughlin, Programs vary in terms of the characteristics of the staff they employ—by age, race, previous experience, and educational attainment. Some programs are staffed by full-time or part-time staff; others rely heavily on community or family volunteers.
Adult leaders—both paid and volunteer—came from various personal and professional backgrounds in the programs reviewed in Community Counts. Some had been in military services; others had been teachers; many had worked in church groups or athletic teams all of their lives McLaughlin, Save the Children programs involve paid and volunteer adults and teens, youth interns, teachers, and community elders Terao et al.
Participants in the Community Impact! Some community programs are led by adults deeply committed to young people and their futures. For some youth, the strength of relationships may be heightened by interaction with adults of their own ethnicity or experience as role models, coaches, and program administrators. Staff who are members of the same community from which the young people come may provide particularly strong support.
Most of the staff members here grew up just like I did on the street and stuff like that so they really taught me how to stay out of trouble and protect myself. Most important to developing connectedness and providing support and guidance is staff who are committed to a program and its young participants, who are consistent in the messages they teach, and who communicate warmth and caring while setting clear boundaries and consistent rules and expectations McLaughlin, These staff attitudes matter more than do questions of race, age, or ethnicity.
Youth see staff who they perceive are their allies and who are committed and trustworthy. Promoting a sense of belonging is fundamental to attracting and retaining the participation of young people, as well as helping them develop confidence and a personal identity.
Young people need to feel included, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, personality, or physical, intellectual, or social limitations. One is the quality of program content; another is the extent to which activities embed various learning goals. At the most basic level, a sense of belonging and inclusion requires that the program strategy attract and interest young people.
Youth want challenging, age-appropriate programming. Membership matters not only to its approach to youth development but also to how it organizes itself to facilitate opportunities for youth. The target membership for a program may be broad or it may focus on a particular ethnic or religious group.
It may be only for boys or only for girls. It may be restricted to a particular age group. Some programs reach out to disenfranchised or at-risk youth; others limit participation to young people who have maintained a certain grade point average or have applied or auditioned to participate in the program.
Many programs seek a heterogeneous set of participants to build understanding and tolerance among young people. Some other programs are targeted toward homogeneous groups in order to offer specific support, cultural awareness, a sense of belonging, and pride to a particular subgroup of youth.
They are committed to offering supports and opportunities to socially marginalized youth—in the case of CYWD to young female prostitutes in San Francisco, and in the case of. Community programs for youth may engage a set of youth in communities that are particularly isolated and where youth have less access to social integration. For adolescents living in rural communities, where the proportion of parents working outside the home is the largest in the country, community programs for youth can nurture engagement and create a strong sense of belonging Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a.
An after-school program in rural Kentucky the Clinton County School District , for example, offers an academic summer camp to youth. These young people participate in sports activities, dancing and music, hunter education courses, computer skills training, communications skills activities, and public speaking.
Given the isolated nature of this Kentucky community, opportunities for special field trips or exposure to diverse skills training are more limited than in urban areas. For these reasons, the on-site program is complemented with a Spanish course taught on-line by a teacher 90 minutes away, and young people take electronic field trips by way of the Internet Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a.
Some community programs for youth are designed as drop-in activities, where young people can come and go and participate in rotating activities of their choice. Other programs require youth to make a commitment to the program and as a result have high expectations for their involvement.
These programs support prosocial norms by teaching youth responsibility to uphold certain rules of behavior, to be accountable to the program and its expectations, and to agree to live up to a set of morals and values. At all costs, the center enforces these established rules and expectations of respect.
The objective is to help young people integrate these norms into their character and their behavior in other parts of their lives McLaughlin et al.
Many community programs for youth incorporate multiple opportunities to build efficacy. Boundaries and expectations: clear rules and consequences; positive behaviors are modeled. Constructive use of time: involvement in structured activities like sports, arts, or religious activities. Commitment to learning: motivation and caring about doing well; reading and doing homework. Social competences: good friendship and decision-making skills; comfortable with different people.
When young people pair their assets with supportive resources and opportunities to interact with others, they make positive contributions to their communities. Youth can connect with diverse groups of people in their communities through volunteering and outreach. This gives them a better understanding of how a community is made up of people with different beliefs and needs. As youth use their assets in productive ways to interact with others, they grow in their ability to recognize ways they can contribute to their environment and make a difference.
Youth who have confidence in their abilities and know how to turn their ideas into plans can become productive leaders who initiate action to solve problems in their communities.
Ultimately, programs with a positive youth development approach build the five Cs of competence, confidence, character, connection, and caring, which can lead to a sixth C—contribution to self, family, community, and institutions of civil society. Benson, P. The troubled journey: A portrait of 6thth grade youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute. Positive youth development and the prevention of youth aggression and violence.
European Journal of Developmental Science, 3 3 , — The contribution of the developmental assets framework to positive youth development theory and practice. Lerner, J. Benson Eds. Volunteers must put their own needs aside to address the needs of others. Children who do so will also learn to value and understand themselves throughout the process. Empathy and citizenship are developed during childhood and adolescence.
And participating in activities like caring for the elderly or addressing homelessness from an early age introduces young people to the process of confronting moral dilemmas and thinking about social change. Exposure to meaningful volunteer opportunities as children and adolescents will help foster lasting empathy and inclusivity, qualities necessary in cultivating safe, unified communities. Nonprofits and volunteer centers have begun to partner with local campuses to develop service-learning and other volunteer programs.
The National Youth Leadership Council states that students who participated in service-learning scored higher in social studies, writing, and language arts subject tests than non-participating students. When students participate in service-learning curriculum, they demonstrate deeper cognitive engagement and greater motivation to learn. And educators are employing service-learning as a tool to reduce high-school dropout and increase achievement among at-risk students.
According to the Opportunity Index , thriving communities provide an infrastructure that supports civic participation such as volunteerism and voting , health, education and work-life.
Second only to youth disconnection, increased incarceration levels is an indicator most associated with opportunity deficiency for young people. Young people who are supported by their communities are less likely to become incarcerated as adults and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives.
Communities can tap into this substantial population and significantly increase your volunteer pool. With their vast social networks and technological savviness, youth make for great volunteer recruiters! Check out this article for useful strategies organizations can employ to engage young volunteers. By welcoming youth volunteerism , your organization invites energetic perspectives and new ideas. Generally, involving a cross-section of volunteers can help your programs move forward.
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