After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development

Learning from Specific Models, Volume 2

The second volume of this SpringerBrief presents a series of papers compiled from a conference addressing how after-school programs can promote positive youth development (PYD) hosted by Youth-Nex, the University of Virginia Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. It examines summer learning and best practices for different types of after-school programs by drawing on the experiences of researchers, program staff, and youth participants. It also presents case studies of five specialized programs and discusses their strengths, limitations, and challenges. In addition, the brief offers recommendations drawn from across the two volumes for how researchers, policy makers, and practitioners can move the field forward and maximize the potential of after-school time and programs to promote positive youth development for children and adolescents. 

Featured case studies of specialized after-school programs include: 

• Richmond, Virginia’s ROSMY.

• The Clubhouse: Where Technology Meets Imagination.

• The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP).

• Whatever It Takes (WIT) Program.

• UTEC of Lowell, Massachusetts.

After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development, Volume 2, is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.