Youth Development Programs For Early Teens By Jane Quinn: Article Analysis

Reading #1

Where Need Meets Opportunity: Youth Development Programs for Early Teens by Jane Quinn The reason I chose this article as my discussion article is because there is so much to talk about for it. It focuses on who provides the programs for our youth, the best practices in positive youth development, the issues in program implementation, and the best practices in community programs for young adolescents.

The different programs that provide leadership opportunities for youth that really stood out to me are the National Youth-Serving Organizations. These are programs like Boy/Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, Big Brother/Big Sisters. All of these types of programs were huge in my life growing up and I think that the Boys and

Being heard is the most common form of student voice. On page 8 it says, “When participating in student voice activities, students often speak with great appreciation that their voice are finally being ‘heard’ and ‘honored’.”(Mitra) This is vital for youth leaders because the more confidence that they have, the better leader they will be. The next typology is collaborating with adults. This is a way for youth to interact with adults to better understand them. For example, in the article the teachers thought that one student did not want to be at school, but the reason she was not at school was because she had family problems at home. Because the student was embarrassed, she did not say anything. Now that she was able to tell the teacher her problem, the teacher and the student were able to work together to “develop a common language and a set of skills that created a shared knowledge base from which the group could communicate and proceed with their activities.” (Mitra, 8) The final typology is building capacity for youth leadership. The students want to take it a little further and build ways on making their school a better place. The students at Whitman high school wanted to get their school out of the “ghetto school” category. With help from staff, they were able to build a student forum to discuss how they will implement ways to do

Students still lacked power and were aware that the adults needed to switch roles with them to help them. That is when youth leadership falls back and teachers go back to their “traditional” way of being superior to students. The only way that this is going to change is if the different typology methods are followed.

Reading #3

Sport and responsible leadership among youth by Don Hellison, Tom Martinek, and Dave Welsh

The reason that I chose this article to be a part of my main topic Youth Leadership is because it not only touches on youth leadership, but it involves leadership in sports as well. My entire childhood I was involved in sports and leadership. I feel like I got my main leadership skills from being on sport teams all year long. This article focuses on youth development in the United States with an emphasis on preparing youth for leadership, then evaluating their leadership growth, and what it looks like to go beyond youth leadership.

There are three very important recommendations that Peter Benson has came up with for developing leadership programs for youth. They