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This primer is intended as a guide for the development and improvement of summer youth programs. The primer focuses on three common forms of summer academic enrichment strategies that combine work and learning: work-based learning strategies, classroom-based enrichment strategies, and summer jobs strategies. It includes information on the following: the key principles involved, the roles of the public schools, the community-based organizations, and employers, key principles guiding partnership development, and other standard components of summer academic enrichment. The guide also includes a short overview of 13 demonstration summer program sites, called Summer Beginnings. (KC)

This serial issue contains five articles relating to career exploration for middle school youth. The first article makes up most of the publication. It explains the concept of Future Options Education, basic tenets of which are the following: (1) career and college preparatory interventions need to be age and stage appropriate; (2) effective learning strategies for young adolescents need to incorporate the themes of "high expectations, high content, and high support"; (3) schools and employment programs need not wait for total school reform to begin to address career education; and (4) there is no one best approach to career development. Future Options Education promotes the use of horizon-broadening learning experiences that include an activity base, self-exploration, adult reinforcement, and a sense of belonging to a group. Future Options Education includes five topic areas: activities that introduce students to the world of work, activities that show the relationship between postsecondary education and good jobs, activities that introduce some key realities of postsecondary education or training, activities that investigate ways to pay for education or training after high school, and activities that keep the door open for future options. Keys to a successful Future Options Education strategy are individualized assessment and the development of an individual Future Options Education Plan. Two case studies of Future Options Education in action and lessons from middle school career programs are included in the report. A list of 15 suggested resources is provided, and reports on projects in progress at the Center for Human Resources, Brandeis University, are included. (KC)

This issue attempts to provide some initial answers to questions about the use of case management in serving disadvantaged youth. "Case Management with At-Risk Youth" presents some basic lessons synthesized from a review of case management in employment programs and in services for teenage parents, the elderly, and the developmentally disabled. It attempts to describe some important ingredients for case management and some key steps common to case management systems. The second article, "The BEEP (Boston Education and Employment Program) Collaborative: A Case Management Partnership for Court-Involved Youth," offers a counterpoint to the first article. It is an interview with Leo Delaney, a Boston-based practitioner who, in 1984, founded a case management program for court-involved youth. The conversation with Delaney focuses on the issue of how to make case management work and how to create a multi-institutional system that guarantees youth access to services from a variety of agencies when they need them. Delaney's answers come from his experience with one approach--a providers' collaborative that developed a common referral system and clear agreements on access to the services of a number of employment, education, and social service agencies. "CHR Notes" describes some comprehensive programs for disadvantaged youth. (YLB)