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by
Maria T. Nagorski
In creating a setting in which youth plan and implement complex projects, Youth
as Resources provides opportunities for young people to work in teams, develop leadership
skills, and solve social problems. Just as important, it provides opportunity for
reflection and a definition (and, in the case of adjudicated youth, a redefinition)
of self as a person who can improve the well-being of others.
On December 8, 1998, I participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a Youth as Resources
(YAR) project, which celebrated the opening of a fitness trail at Eagle Creek Park
in Indianapolis. The project was designed and implemented by young people who applied
for and received a local YAR grant. The youth who restored this trail enjoyed the
praises they received from community dignitaries and residents. It was a new experience
for these youth, particularly for their leader. Bill Porter, 18, was undergoing a
restoration of his own: a return to his community from an Indiana juvenile correctional
facility. Bill had recruited a group of still-incarcerated youth to help him with
the project, "so they could learn about YAR and at the same time we could give
back to the community." Proudly, Bill explained that "YAR lets you know
that you can have responsibilities, even though you're youth." I hoped his YAR
experiences would serve this promising, capable young man well as he began to build
a new life for himself.
At the national conference of the National Crime Prevention Council last
fall Lenita Lackey, a petite 18-year-old woman, helped present a workshop on the
effectiveness of Youth as Resources in corrections. She spoke from personal experience,
from the perspective of someone who had passed through her transition and made a
new life for herself. The years she had spent as an abandoned child, running away
from abusive foster homes, was in the past. The juvenile correctional facility had
served as her home, and Youth as Resources as her family. "When YAR came into
my life, I realized I could get attention for being good," Lenita said. She's
now fully employed and studying for her G.E.D.
Background
Bill and Lenita are only two examples of youth who have benefitted from Youth as
Resources, a program conceived in 1986 and implemented in 1987 by the National Crime
Prevention Council (NCPC) with funding from the Lilly Endowment. There are countless
other stories of YAR youth from all segments of society, and from all types of backgrounds,
who have become engaged in youth-led community service-carrying out projects they
have designed themselves to improve their communities and solve social problems.
The grants these youth have received have been awarded to them by YAR boards, where
youth serve as equals with adults. Together, board members review project proposals,
interview young people presenting the proposals, decide on grant recipients, award
the grants from a pool of funds provided by local YAR program sponsors, and then
monitor projects and evaluate them upon completion.
The impact of YAR has been phenomenal and the reach widespread: over 150,000 youth
from all over the United States and in three foreign countries have become involved
as service providers, board members, and philanthropists.
The impact
of YAR has been phenomenal and the reach widespread: over 170,000 youth from all
over the United States and in three foreign countries have become involved as service
providers, board members, and philanthropists.
Thirteen years ago, however, when the NCPC began to advocate ideas about youth empowerment,
youth-led service, and youth in governance, it was one of only a few lonely voices.
At the time, NCPC believed (and continues to believe) that addressing social issues,
including preventing crime, requires everyone's participation. We were convinced
that young people's energy, enthusiasm, and optimism could be a major resource, whether
in a community, an organizational system working with youth, or a setting that focused
on social change and community improvement. We also knew we needed youth voices at
decision-making and policy levels.
Some saw our idea of youth as equal partners with adults as strange or simply crazy.
Their views-that youth generate more problems than solutions and/or that youth should
merely be recipients of community services-were among the misconceptions we hoped
to change.
Some saw
our idea of youth as equal partners with adults as strange. Their view-that youth
generate more problems than solutions-was
a misconception we hoped to change.
The Lilly Endowment had faith in our ideas and provided major funding to establish
programs in three Indiana cities to test the YAR concept and demonstrate its effectiveness.
The essence of YAR's mission was to engage all youth of all ethnic backgrounds in
civic life-be they in or out of school, honor roll students, high school drop-outs,
or somewhere in between-through participation in YAR. Our hope was that young people
would realize that their community needed and valued them as resources for social
change. John Mutz, then President of the Lilly Endowment, put it this way:
"The idea of young people demonstrating their citizenship through projects
they developed as local solutions to complex social issues was consistent with our
[Lilly Endowment's] vision that youth, like adults, have the capacity to become ...
leaders."
The Goals
Our goals for the pilot YARs were as follows:
- To affirm youths' capacity to
take on responsible roles in solving community problems
- To learn how communities can
create and sustain the opportunities for young people to take on such roles
- To shift policies and procedures
of agencies toward the idea of using youth as resources
- To shift public opinion toward
an affirmation of youth as community assets
- To discover what happens to the
young people who take part in YAR projects
Three years after the launching of the three pilot programs in Evansville, Fort Wayne,
and Indianapolis, an independent evaluation showed that the programs had met all
of the goals, and to a high degree. The response of the youth-both those serving
on YAR boards and those involved in the projects-to the new responsibilities and
opportunities afforded them through their participation in YAR exceeded our expectations.
Youth not only made significant changes in their communities, but experienced changes
in themselves: enhanced self-esteem, new leadership skills, a sense of being a valued
member of the community, of making a difference in others' lives.
Youth profoundly demonstrated their commitment to making their neighborhoods, schools,
and communities better and safer through a variety of projects. Examples included
initiating a neighborhood program to end violence, hosting a school celebration of
cultural diversity, raising awareness about child abuse, and providing companionship
and assistance to nursing home residents, children in trauma centers, or families
in homeless
shelters.
The impact on youth was reflected in their comments. One teen involved in a YAR project
said, "I like to see the homeless kids happy. It makes me feel good about myself
because I'm doing something good for others." Another teen, a high school junior
and a member of the Indianapolis Advisory Board, provided valuable insights into
this experience of youth empowerment:
"It makes me feel real important to be on the Board and have adult members
listen to me and give me their full attention... I felt really involved... deciding
which [projects] really were important to the community [and deserved YAR funding]
and which were of less importance.... Volunteering has helped me to get to know many
people and to become more open. Being part of YAR has made me feel mature and capable-a
person who can express his thoughts and have people listen."
These kind of comments continue to be made today.
YAR in Corrections
As a result of the remarkable successes of the pilot, NCPC decided to test
YAR even further. In 1991, again with funding from Lilly Endowment, NCPC launched
its Special Initiative, introducing YAR into juvenile corrections. The purpose was
to demonstrate that "all youth-no matter how troubled or troubling-have something
of worth to give, can give, and want to give..." NCPC also wanted to test YAR
as a tool to "refocus programs and policies of agencies working with at-risk
youths toward ones which value their skills and abilities more highly."
Indiana's only facility for adjudicated girls, referred to as the "Girls School"
or IGS, served as the launching pad. NCPC and the Indiana Department of Corrections
laid the groundwork so that everyone involved was open to this experiment. A few
modifications to the YAR model were required: the corrections facilities did not
have youth-adult boards; however, incarcerated youth were challenged to design projects
and present proposals to the Indianapolis YAR board, who welcomed their new partners.
According to Carol Duncan, Assistant Superintendent of Education at IGS,
"At IGS if you say Youth as Resources, everybody knows what you're talking
about. We offered it to all the girls and staff... and eventually everybody at the
facility was in some way touched by the program. People out in the community discuss
what the girls are doing. We get phone calls and letters all the time, thanking us
for sending such wonderful volunteers."
And a YAR adult leader at IGS offered insights into the impact on the youth:
"Through YAR projects the girls develop friendships with beneficiaries...
and these experiences bring up emotions they may not have dealt with. When they help
out a child who has been abused, for example, or work with a recovering addict,
they begin to make emotional connections. In counseling sessions, we start
by talking about these experiences, and suddenly, the girls are having revelations
about their own lives. It has been a powerful tool for me to help the girls..."
Because of YAR's positive effects in the IGS, it was introduced at the IBS, an Indiana
juvenile corrections facility for boys. Kevin Moore, then Superintendent of IBS,
summed up YAR's impact on IBS as follows:
"This facility has a long tradition of doing community service. When YAR
came we asked 'Why do we need people to come in here and tell us how to do it?' But
that was quickly answered after our first meeting with NCPC. The main thing that
made YAR different was the youth-led aspect... It kind of goes against the old guard
here... It's a new way, a better way, to look at service because the boys choose
and they handle the responsibility beautifully."
And an independent evaluator concluded that YAR created "an environment that
led some youth ... to discover an inner drive to serve as a positive force in the
world."
Fast-forward to 1999. YAR in corrections and its aftercare counterpart, and youth
like Bill and Lenita, continue to prove that youth can give back to their community
and, in the process, gain a new sense of personal worth.
The YAR Network
Even while YAR in corrections was being tested in 1991, YAR was spreading to
more communities within and beyond Indiana's borders. In 1995, NCPC created the Center
for Youth as Resources, a separate organization with offices in Washington and Indianapolis,
to oversee the further expansion of YAR programs and to provide training and technical
assistance to the ever-growing YAR network.
Today YAR is vital and vibrant in many communities and cities across the nation.
There are 60 YAR programs in 20 states and the District of Columbia as well as in
three foreign countries: Canada, Poland, and New Zealand. YAR programs are thriving
in urban, suburban, and rural settings, in large public housing facilities and small
towns. Through the support of local funders-community foundations, corporations,
and other benefactors-YAR programs receive the funding to dispense grants to groups
of youth, enabling them to implement projects, and to continue the cycle of positive
youth and community development. New applications of YAR continue to be explored.
This spring Ball State University will graduate its first class of Social Work students
to have participated in a course in which running a YAR program is a key element.
In its dozen years, YAR has affirmed youths' capacity to take on responsible roles
in solving community problems, and has enabled communities to create and sustain
the opportunities for young people to take on such roles. Youth-serving agencies
have adopted policies and procedures incorporating the idea of using youth as resources
and engaging youth on boards and in other decision-making roles. NCPC has been
joined by a chorus of organizations calling for greater recognition of youths' capabilities.
The battle to influence public opinion to see youth as community assets has not been
won, but significant progress is being made.
Many of today's spokespeople for youth empowerment are young adults who themselves
were YAR youth. The sidebar below profiles two such youth: Rasheed Newson
and Jennifer Cheslock.
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For further
information on YAR, visit their Web site at www.yar.org
or contact
Michaela Orizu, Special Assistant
The Center for Youth as Resources
1700 K Street, NW, Suite 801
Washington, DC 20006
202-261-4131
Fax 202-785-0698
References
Changing Perspectives:
Youth as Resources, 1990, The National Crime Prevention Council, Washington,
DC
A Follow-Up Study of Youth as Resources: Youth Volunteers, October 1992, by
Christine Glancy and Paula Schmidt-Lewis.
An Evaluation of Youth as Resources: Special Initiative, November 1992, by
Paula Schmidt-Lewis and Christine Glancy.
Youth as Resources: Special Initiative Phase II, Final Evaluation Report,
February 1995, by Paula Schmidt-Lewis.
Reconnecting Youth and Community: Youth as Resources in Juvenile Corrections,
1997, Center for Youth as Resources, Washington, DC.
Author
bio (back
to top)
Maria Nagorski joined the National Crime Prevention
Council (NCPC) in 1985 as deputy director, providing leadership of several of NCPC's
programs for youth, including the then-nascent Youth as Resources (YAR). Under Ms.
Nagorski's leadership, YAR programs spread nationally and internationally, engaging
thousands of youth as decision makers and agents of community change. To expand the
YAR concept even further and to provide ongoing training and technical assistance
to established cites, Ms. Nagorski founded the Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR)
in 1995, and served as its first director, leading a process of fundraising, board,
development, and incorporation. CYAR, an independent affiliate of NCPC, maintains
offices in Washington and Indianapolis. In January of 1999, Ms. Nagorski resigned
from her post to further promote the concepts of youth and community development
as an independent consultant. She is currently on assignment in Rome, Italy. |
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