Extension > Youth Development > Research > Policy
Making the case for youth development
Policy
To support the healthy development of all young people, look beyond academic achievement to comprehensive planning and funding sustainability. Policy includes research and case studies to help communities plan and fund youth programs.
Presentations
Adolescent Brain Development (YD Brown Bag Webinar Series) This webinar explores what is known about adolescent brain development and how it affects how we work with adolescents and their parents. 2012.
Working in Youth-Serving Organizations: The Sphere of Professional Education
Today there is a clear understanding that ongoing training and education for professionals is not only a smart investment but a professional obligation. Dr. Dana Fusco presents her current research on the sphere of youth work education in the United States. 2012.-
Trends in adolescent brain development: Implications for youth practice and policy
This symposium focuses on the latest findings from research on adolescent brain development, and the implications of this research for our field’s practice and policy work. 2012. -
Digital Youth Network: Developing 21st century learners through the integration of overlapping affinity spaces
Through a mix of during school, afterschool, and online spaces, the Digital Youth Network provides youth opportunities to develop and apply new media literacy in ways that are personally and academically meaningful to them. 2011. -
Aligning Proactive Policies for Youth
A video featuring Karen Pittman about how youth can be ready for college, work and life; how communities can support that effort; and how to evaluate progress. 2008 
Ensuring Quality across Out-of-School Programs and Systems
Fact sheets with information on high quality programming taking an expert touch, including aligning disparate resources, including program organization. 2007
Reports & articles
Youth Program Accreditation Issue Brief (473 K PDF)
Captures and documents multiple perspectives and ideas from the field about accreditation issues and approaches. The primary audience for this issue brief is funders and policy makers. 2012
Supporting Youth Success: The Promise of Expanded Learning Opportunities (1.9 MB PDF)
Final report from Youth Community Connections work on ways of supporting youth success through expanded learning opportunities in the state. 2011
Building Opportunity: Developing City Systems to Expand and Improve After School Programs
This paper presents the community context and underlying principles that drove the development of Baltimore’s After-School Strategy; articulates a set of system components derived from this experience and the available literature; and lays out future work to expand high quality after-school opportunities for youth in Baltimore and in other distressed urban environments. 2010
Once We Know It, We Can Grow It (710 K PDF) Summary version (245 K PDF)
A white paper on how quality matters in multiple dimensions of nonformal learning in the nonschool hours. 2009
Economic Return of Afterschool Programs (90 K PDF)
A brief report presenting return-on-investment in regards to after-school programming. 2008
A New Day for Learning: A report from the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force (2.6 MB PDF)
An article that includes five elements of a new learning system, which contends that the nation's steady progress as an economy and as a society will end unless we profoundly change our thinking and polices about how children learn and develop. 2007
Shaping the future of after-school, The After School Corporation (115 K PDF)
A report the Collaborative (CBASS) published to document the critical role intermediaries play in the development of after-school systems in their cities. This report shows how intermediaries have helped increase the quality, sustainability, and availability of after-school and offers a vision for public policy change to support the continued growth of after-school. 2007
Nothing New Under the Sun: A Century of Thought About Out-of-School Time and Social Capital (95 K PDF)
An article explaining how the history of "positive out-of-school time" (POST) shows how youth work is essential to school reform and community revitalization movements. 2002
The National Conversation on Youth Development in the 21st Century: Final Report(492 K PDF)
Specific and strategic calls to action on a national level, based on a nationwide research and strategic planning process completed in 2002.
Moving an Out-of-School Agenda: Lessons and Challenges Across Cities (929 K PDF)
The Forum for Youth Investment assessed youth work in four cities and indentified significant and recurring gaps in the out-of-school hours, and the challenges cities face as they address this and other issues. 2002
Becoming a University of Promise (179 K PDF)
An article by the president of the University of Minnesota outlining the plan to become a University of Promise, allied with the America's Promise campaign. 2001
Minnesota Alliance With Youth: Reflections and Analysis of the Journey (191 K PDF)
This article reflects on the experiences of the Minnesota Alliance with Youth since 1997 as it sought to advance this movement in the state of Minnesota. 2001
Challenges and Opportunities in After-school Programs: Lessons for Policymakers & Funders
Public/Private Venture publication that looks at the strengths and challenges for after-school program success, drawing data from the Extended-Service School Adaptatioin Initative. 2001
Extension's Roles in Community Youth Development for the 21st Century (748 K PDF)
An article on the role of Extension and 4-H in youth development today with the arrival of a new millenium. 2000
Related organizations
Children, Youth & Families Consortium
CYFC's policy unit brings Minnesota state legislators together to talk and informs them on evidence-based research on youth development.
Cyfernet
A database of research-based youth development materials, particularly for at-risk audiences. Includes curricula, new and seminal research, technology and program evaluation resources.
Harvard Family Research Project
Research on more effective youth development practices, programs, and policies.
Search Institute
Research-based solutions to challenges facing young people.
