Search

Sierra Health Foundation is embarking on a new initiative to promote youth development practices among those who serve 'tweens and teens--youth who are ages 10 to 15. The initiative seeks to engage youth in a variety of contexts, including internships, service, social justice, and advocacy. A major part of the initiative focuses on expanding leadership opportunities for youth, the subject of this report. Sierra Health seeks to explore and highlight the topic of youth leadership because it is a critical tool for empowering youth to take control of their own lives and make healthier decisions that lead to success as adults. Sierra Health commissioned the Youth Services Provider Network to research and write this report as a part of both organizations' continuing efforts to publicize the importance of youth development approaches when seeking to improve the lives of youth. The Network is a collaborative of youth-service providers that strive to improve youth development practices throughout the Sacramento region through trainings, networking opportunities for youth agencies, and policy work. The goals of this paper are: 1) to provide an overview of youth leadership and why it is important; 2) to share some of the best practices from organizations that successfully implement youth leadership opportunities; and 3) to provide in a supplemental booklet an introductory catalogue of the youth leadership opportunities that exist in the greater Sacramento region. The report and catalogue aim to guide agencies that are interested in adopting youth leadership components into their program, to make youth aware of leadership opportunities in the Sacramento area, and to help Sierra Health identify gaps in youth services. The information in this report was gathered from many different sources, including interviews with and a survey of key organizations throughout the greater Sacramento region, as well as a review of the wide body of research literature and online resources addressing youth leadership in California and nationwide. (Contains 10 notes.)

This resource book, designed as a planning tool for demonstration project directors, discusses the following six key elements which have application at all three stages of a demonstration project: (1) Objectives, (2) resources, (3) endorsement, (4) communications, (5) evaluation, and (6) outreach. Each of these elements is discussed within the context of demonstration projects regarding plan, operation, and replication. Each chapter is organized into a discussion of the essential elements, action steps for implementing the elements by stages, and an activities checklist. Project directors may also use this guide to determine the adequacy of activities in the operational phase of a demonstration project. (Information in the guide is based on a mail survey response from 54 federally funded exemplary project sites in the spring of 1976.) (LAS)