Abstract
The field of youth development programming is brimming with creative, compassionate, and committed minds that strategize ways to meet youth challenges and engage with youth in exciting and relevant work. Some youth programmers have chosen to create specialized programs to address a societal or a particular youth population’s need. This chapter presents case studies of five such programs. Richmond, Virginia’s ROSMY, formerly, the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth, aims to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth aged 11–20. The Clubhouse: Where Technology Meets Imagination, provides a safe space for low-income youth to work with adult mentors to explore their own interests, develop skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology. The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), based out of the University of Virginia, pairs college woman mentors with middle school girls deemed at-risk by school personnel to strengthen both groups’ leadership skills. Whatever It Takes (WIT) aims to fill a gap in social entrepreneurship education for high school youth. Aiming to support those who have not been sufficiently reached by shorter term programs or the judicial system, UTEC, of Lowell, Massachusetts, targets youth aged 16–24 who are out of school without a high school diploma, involved with a gang, or involved in criminal activity. These case studies point to the need to direct resources toward recruiting and supporting adults in building relationships with youth in addition to ensuring a range of youth programming to meet diverse youth needs.
After the first author, all authors contributed equally to this manuscript and are listed in alphabetical order.
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- 1.
Includes youth who are either still enrolled in intensive programming and/or working with a Transitional Coach or a Streetworker.
- 2.
The fiscal year statistic is provided instead of the calendar year statistic because the state introduced a new high school credential test in 2014, which resulted in a gap where no testing was available for the first few months of the 2014 calendar year.
- 3.
The organization has since changed its name from ROSMY to Side by Side.
- 4.
“Transgender is an umbrella term that may be used to describe people whose gender expression does not conform to cultural norms and/or whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender is a self-identity, and some gender nonconforming people do not identify with this term. An asterisk is sometimes added to the word trans to signify that trans communities are diverse and include many different identities” (Erickson-Schroth, 2014, p. 620).
- 5.
ROSMY groups have two adult facilitators.
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Levy, M.K. et al. (2017). Specialized After-School Programs: Five Case Studies. In: Deutsch, N. (eds) After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59141-4_3
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