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Rebecca Saito

Senior research associate

Current work, research and interests

Rebecca Saito is a researcher, evaluator, consultant, facilitator, speaker, and author, who has focused her passion and work over the past 25+ years on deepening our understanding of, and impact on, the well-being of young people and communities. Her current work focuses heavily on learning, promoting and supporting youth engagement, community-based strategies to promote positive youth development, youth violence prevention through public information and mobilization, formal and informal mentoring and research and program evaluation that helps build stronger youth development programs and practices.

Saito, along with her husband R. Delroy Calhoun, were the recipients of the 2004-2005 Howland Family Endowment for Youth Leadership Development Chair. Through their work in their own neighborhood as Endowed Chairs, they created the Youth Action Crew project—a “youth-driven” social marketing project that is designed to increase awareness of and engagement in youth programs and opportunities.

Academic degrees and experience

• M.A, social science, University of Chicago.
• B.S., psychosocial growth and development, University of Minnesota.

Selected publications

Saito, R. (2009). “Promoting Participation of Older Youth in Out-of-School Time Programs and Opportunities”.

Saito, R. (2007). “Beyond access and supply: Youth-led strategies to captivate young people’s interest in and demand for youth programs and opportunities.” In D. Blyth and J. Walker (ed.), New Directions for Youth Development Theory, Practice, Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Rhodes, J.R., R. Spencer, R. Saito, C. Sipe, and K. Fredriksen, Online Mentoring: The Promise and Challenges of an Emerging Approach to Youth Development (The Journal of Primary Prevention, 27:5, Fall 2006).

Listening to Young People’s Perspectives on Out-of-School Time Opportunities, Final Report (The Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time Use, July, 2004).

“The Scientific Foundations of Youth Development” in Trends in Youth Development: Visions, Realities and Challenges (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001).

Contact

saito015@umn.edu
1-612-626-8327
University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus