Recruitment and Retention in Youth Development Programming
By By Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Ph.D.
The Prevention Researcher,
Volume 12, Number 2, 2005, Pages 3-6, Item# A122-ANDERSON
Youth development programs are designed to ensure that young people experience healthy development, success in school, and smooth transitions to adulthood. However, ensuring that adolescents participate in these programs is a continual challenge, especially as they age. Exploring key issues related to recruiting and retaining involvement in youth development programs, this article examines youths' initial decisions to attend a program, and describes important motivators that impact their continued involvement.
One of the challenges of getting adolescents involved in youth development programs is that of opportunity. Youth cannot be recruited into programs that do not exist, that youth don't know about, or which they do not have the time and/or resources to be engaged in. Additionally, the activities offered in these programs need to be of interest and relevance to adolescents. Other motivators related to involvement include adolescents' desire to feel competent in an activity, their desire for autonomy, and their desire to feel connected with others.
The article is designed to act as an initial framework to assist youth development practitioners in exploring youth involvement in their own programming. Throughout this article, the author provides concrete examples of how to incorporate these motivators into a youth development program.
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This article can be found in the issue:
Involving and Engaging Youth
The Prevention Researcher,
Volume 12, Number 2, 2005
Before youth can benefit from high quality after-school programs, they need to be drawn into a program and consistently engaged by it. This issue takes a special look at involving middle- and high-school aged youth in after-school programs and keeping them engaged.
This issue also featured these articles:
- Connecting with Girls, Connects Them to You: Toward a "By Girls - For Girls" Approach, Pages 18-20
- Developing School Connectedness in Diverse Youth Through Extracurricular Programming, Pages 14-17
- Engaging Adolescents in Out-of-School Time Programs: Learning What Works, Pages 7-10
- Improving Participation in After-School Programs, Pages 11-13
- Recruitment and Retention in Youth Development Programming, Pages 3-6
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