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youth educators

Feature Article

Creating Engaging Programs for Youth
By Meeta Sharma-Holt, MSW
February 1, 2010

Each year, DTL helps provide seed grants to local non-profits who provide afterschool activities and substance abuse prevention education to teens. This year 40 grantees were chosen.  These grantees offer sports, arts, substance prevention tips and prom alternative activities, to name a few.

In November, Drawing the Line grantees learned about ways to increase the quality of their afterschool programs. Among other tips, DTL’s evaluation consultant, Martha Johns, Program Associate at the Pacific Research Institute, recommended aligning programs to meet the “40 Developmental Assets” created by the Search Institute http://www.search-institute.org/assets. These are internal and external environments that help or detract youth from developing fully. The helpful, or “positive assets” include things like caring adults, physical safety and constructive use of time.

Ms. Johns explained the best programs, “have youth input in planning, clear expectations, are meaningful uses of time and provided by well-trained, caring adults, and provide for physical and emotional safety.”

So what does all of this mean to an educator or non-profit group trying to create a sound program to engage youth? This information can be used in a classroom or afterschool program in the following ways:

  1. Make sure all the adults in the room want to be there and know what they are doing – This is a truism for teaching as well as leading sports team. If youth feel appreciated and are with knowledgeable adults, they will be better engaged.
  2. Involve youth in the planning – Young people can help create the ideas for a mural, a cooking project, even tell you how best to help them stay away from drugs and alcohol.
  3. Provide safe and developmentally sound activities – Find out the needs of youth by considering the actual maturity, reading level and special needs in the group before creating a program. Then, be prepared to modify the program to meet various youth’s abilities and interests. Most importantly, staff and youth must work to create both a physically and emotionally safe environment.

These are just a few of the many ways that adults wanting to engage youth and help young people develop their skills and talents can create better programs. There are many other resources that can help, located in the Resources (link to section) section of this website.