Toward a Strategy for Effective Youth Policy

This project contributes to robust theory building and effective policy making for understanding how social justice practices intersect with youth development for youth in working class communities of color. This project is guided by three overarching goals. First, the project establishes a community of scholars who convene annually to develop a multi-disciplinary research agenda to study the relationship among youth, social justice, and urban communities. By connecting junior and senior level scholars with a common set of research questions and conceptual frameworks, the national convening establishes a network of scholars engaged in the study of social justice and youth development. Second, the project supports empirical research that examines how youth of color respond to constraints in their communities that impede their healthy development. By documenting a broad array of social justice strategies and organizational practices in schools, communities, and religious organizations, this project advances youth development theory with a richer understanding of how young people transform their communities to improve their own quality of life. Such activities might include community organizing, participatory action research, political education, popular theater, marches, and other forms of civic engagement. Third, the project identifies promising strategies for supporting youth and encourages local and national stakeholders to integrate these strategies into policy making. Policy and practice briefs will be distributed to local youth serving organizations and policy makers followed by briefings which will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington DC.