Contact Name
Barbara Dietsch
562-985-9488

Contact Email
bdietsc@WestEd.org

Karen Pittman, M.A.
Senior Vice President
International Youth Foundation

The basic public health model suggests a three tiered approach to addressing health problems: 1) treat those who have the problem or disease, 2) modify the attitudes and habits of those at risk of contracting the problem, and 3) educate those not yet engaged. The options reflect a logical continuum. But efforts to date suggest that, even when aggressively offered, these are necessary but not sufficient elements of an effective prevention strategy, especially among low-income, low-skilled teens. This recognition- that pregnancy prevention, in particular, requires capacity and motivation-led to the life options movement in the mid-1980's. Sexuality-specific education and services were linked to efforts to improve academic, social, and vocational skills and prospects. The youth development "paradigm shift" came directly out of this work. Informed by research and practice, the youth development approach assumes there will always be a need for specific problem-focused interventions. It asserts, however, that we will never reduce this need until we back up to redefine the goals we have for young people and they have for themselves. Why? Because how you define the goals determines how you define the strategies, who you decide should implement them, and when and where interventions should occur. Prevention is an inadequate goal. Problem-free is not fully prepared.

Case in point. An employer is introduced to a young person with the following statement: 'Here's Katib. He's not a drug user. He's not in a gang. He's not a dropout. He's not a teen father. Please hire him.' The employer responds, 'That's great. But what does he know, what can he do?'

If we cannot define-and do not give young people ample opportunities to define- what skills, values, attitudes, knowledge, and commitments we want with as much force as we can define what we do not want, we will fail. Why? Because the motivation to address problems is imbedded in the deeper motivation to develop and demonstrate capacity. Problem-free is not fully prepared, but real opportunities to be fully prepared and fully participating are powerful motivators to be problem-free. Developing Positive Youth Outcomes: The Glass Half-Full

What are the goals we as a society have for young people? Beyond the specific goal of staying out of trouble, the policy literature usually contains broad statements about how we want young people to be good citizens, good neighbors, good workers, and good parents. The academic and programmatic literatures usually push farther, articulating general lists of competencies that we want for young people that go beyond academic or cognitive competence to include vocational, physical, emotional, civic, social and cultural competence.

The problem is that we have not evenly established developmental benchmarks or defined the steps needed to acquire this fuller range of competencies. The educational field is littered with benchmarks (e.g. GPA, being on grade, achievement tests; state and national standards tests). Vocational experts and the business community are developing indicators of vocational competence or readiness. But definitions of competence in the other areas are blurry at best. In these areas, success is still largely defined as lack of problems (e.g., pregnancy, violent or delinquent behavior, gang involvement, and open racism). Clearly a key task in broadening goals to include prevention and development is developing sound definitions and benchmarks for the full range of competencies.

But benchmarking skills and behaviors is only half the challenge. Paralleling the broadening of our definition of expected competencies has to be an acceptance of the importance of a second set of outcomes-those that allow young people to be not only competent, but connected, caring and committed. In addition to skills, young people must have a solid sense of safety and structure, membership and belonging, mastery and sense of purpose, responsibility and self-worth. Supports, Opportunities, and Services: The Ingredients for Youth Development

What are the basic inputs or raw resources that young people need to build competence, confidence, connections, and character? The literature on factors influencing youth development suggests seven key inputs: Safe and stable places, basic care and services (including health care, transportation), high quality instruction and training, are the resources that families and communities offer youth. But it is the supports and opportunities offered in these settings that are critical. Young people need opportunities to develop sustained, caring relationships and social and strategic networks; challenging experiences that are appropriate, diverse, and sufficiently intense; and opportunities for real participation and involvement in the full range of community life. Services alone will not draw youth in from the streets. All young people, affluent or low-income, above grade or out-of school, need a mix of services, supports and opportunities in order to stay engaged.

Communities: The Context for Development

What are the settings in which young people find these key resources? Programs and organizations can have an enormous impact on youths' lives, but this impact is either amplified or dampened by the quality and congruence of what else is going on in their families, peer groups, and neighborhoods. There are, as always, young people who "beat the odds", but it is the differences in family and community that determine the odds.

Young people grow up in a set of imbedded networks. The complexity and unevenness of adolescent development and the need for constancy in relationships, environments and engagement means that those best positioned to influence development are the "natural actors" in youths' lives-family, peers, neighbors, and community institutions.

Any and all of these networks can provide the key inputs needed. The list of inputs offered is intentionally place/provider-generic. In some communities, the networks are well equipped and well connected enough that a young person can get all that is needed naturally from family, neighbors, and an assortment of informal or individually negotiated experiences. In other communities, because these inputs are not available in sufficient quantity and quality, essential services, opportunities, and supports may need to be created. The critical question is how. At some point even the best-intentioned interventions, designed and implemented from the outside, are in danger of doing more harm than good if there are no efforts to imbed them within the natural or permanent supports in young people's lives.

A stubborn adherence to the false logic that youth must be "fixed" before they can be developed leads to too much emphasis on structuring services to solve problems and inadequate attention to strengthening supports and opportunities to increase potential. Even for marginalized youth and families, the strategy is not fix then develop, it is fix through development. Until there is a challenge, there is no reason that any person, young or old, is going to be sufficiently engaged to change.