Strategies and Resources for Responding to Disconnected Youth

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Strategies and Resources for Responding to
Disconnected Youth

• Judith A. Kahn
• March 27, 2008
• Public Library Association Conference

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Tasks of Adolescence

• Being, Becoming Belonging
• Physical
• Social
• Emotional
• Vocational
• Spiritual
• Healthy Youth Development
• Confidence g Connection
• Competence g Caring
• Contribution

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Developmentally Supportive Places

• Features
• Physical and psychological safety
• Appropriate structure
• Supportive adult relationships
• Feelings of belonging and being valued
• Opportunities to develop positive social values
  and norms
• Support for efficacy and mattering
• Opportunities for skill building and mastery
• National Academies of Sciences/National Research
  Councils Panel on Community Youth Development
  Programs

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Public Libraries and Youth Development

• Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development
  (PLPYD)
• Challenges, activities and opportunities designed
  to support six basic developmental outcomes
• Youth contribute to their community
• You feel safe in their environment
• Youth have meaningful relationships with adults
  and peers
• Youth achieve educational success
• Youth develop marketable skills
• Youth develop personal and social skills

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Factors Leading to Vulnerability

• Institutional Challenges
• Unsafe schools or with few resources, unsafe or
  deprived neighborhoods, services in silo
• Educational Challenges
• ELL, special ed needs, older for grade, low
  literacy skills
• Social Challenges
• Poverty, racism, abuse, juvenile justice
• Personal Challenges
• Lack of self-efficacy, mental/physical health
  problems

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Challenges to Developing an Effective Response

• No one agency or public system can typically
  address the multiple obstacles facing
  disconnected youth
• Collaboration among stakeholders is essential,
  but hard to achieve
• Libraries are rarely considered one of the key
  stakeholders

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National League of Cities

• Local government sets the tone and direction for
  local efforts to reengage disconnected youth.
• Promote educational achievement
• Developing workforce connections
• Supporting youth in transition
• Build a citywide system

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Youth Transitions Funders Group Connected by 25

• A young person who is Connected by 25 has
  attained 5 critical outcomes
• Educational achievement in preparation for career
  and civic participation
• Gainful employment and/or access to career
  training
• Ability to be a responsible and nurturing parent
• Capacity to participate in the civic life of
  ones community

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Implications for organizational policy

• Analyze internal policies against research on
  healthy youth development
• Create opportunities for disengaged youth to
  engage in healthy behaviors
• Create opportunities for disengaged youth to
  articulate how libraries can support their
  efforts to transition to adulthood.

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National Resources

• Connect for Kids www.connectforkids.org
• Youth Transition Funders Group (Out-of-School
  Youth/Struggling Students Work Group www.ytfg.org
• National League of Cities Municipal Network for
  Disconnected Youth www.nlc.org/iyef/program_areas
  /youth_development/4627cfm
• Forum for Youth Investment www.forumforyouthinvest
  ment.org

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• Healthy development is not an individual process
  rather, it is a community affair