Youth Leadership for Development: Civic Activism as a Component of Youth Development Programming and a Strategy for Strengthening Civil Society

Civic engagement is important for the positive development of adolescents. As such, many youth development programs promote civic engagement, particularly community service and volunteerism. This report is a program evaluation of a youth leadership seminar that seeks to empower adolescents to engage in community service. Using a pre to post mixed-methods design, we evaluated 114 adolescent participants on several psychosocial outcomes. Findings indicated that participants experienced positive change that was consistent with program goals. Quantitative findings demonstrated self-reported increases in areas of cognitive autonomy, moral ideal and social responsibility. Qualitative findings included the important themes of an increased desire to volunteer, confidence, and positive feelings towards self. Implications of these findings and future directions are also discussed.

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EXPLORING DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS IN UGANDAN YOUTH

International Journal of Child Youth and Family Studies ◽

10.18357/ijcyfs34.1201211557 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 3 (4.1) ◽

pp. 500 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Christopher Drescher ◽

Eu Gene Chin ◽

Laura R Johnson ◽

Julie S Johnson-Pynn

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Environmental Degradation ◽

Developmental Assets ◽

Civil Conflict ◽

Cultural Contexts ◽

Healthy Development ◽

Psychometric Measures ◽

Preliminary Support

Ugandan youth face a number of threats to their healthy development including poverty, high rates of disease, civil conflict, and environmental degradation. Cultivating developmental competencies is critical, not only for youth, but also for the future of Ugandan communities and civil society. In this article, we highlight contextual challenges facing Ugandan youth, report exploratory results on “standard” measures of developmental assets, and discuss the utility of a positive youth development (PYD) framework in Uganda. Despite difficult circumstances, our results indicated high levels of internal and external assets as assessed with the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP). The DAP demonstrated acceptable internal consistencies and was correlated with two other measures of youth assets, self-efficacy, and civic action. Although researchers should proceed with caution when using psychometric measures in new cultural contexts, our results provide preliminary support for the use of the DAP and a PYD framework for advancing adolescent research and programming in Uganda.

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Positive Youth Development Programming with Marginalized Populations

Positive Youth Development Through Sport ◽

10.4324/9781315709499-14 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 168-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tanya Forneris ◽

Corliss Bean ◽

Tanya Halsall

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Marginalized Populations ◽

Development Programming

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Activists at risk

Civic Activism Unleashed ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190931704.003.0009 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 129-145

Author(s):

Richard Youngs

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Civil Society ◽

Global Civil Society ◽

Negative Trend ◽

Civic Activism

Chapter 9 assesses the more clearly negative trend in global civil society: the increasing attacks meted out by regimes against activists. As this phenomenon becomes more serious and widespread, so activists intensify their efforts to develop new and informal forms of activism as a means to decrease their vulnerability to repression. The chapter critically examines the extent to which new civic activism can help mitigate these attacks against global civil society.

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The changing shape of civic activism

Civic Activism Unleashed ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190931704.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 9-26

Author(s):

Richard Youngs

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Organizational Forms ◽

Conceptual Base ◽

Civic Activism ◽

New Organizational Forms ◽

The World

Chapter 2 presents an overview of emerging types of civic activism. It categorizes the different forms and styles of the civic activism that has gained presence and influence in recent years. It then provides examples from around the world. The chapter explains how this mapping of new organizational forms is the essential conceptual base from which an assessment of contemporary civil society must proceed.

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The Asset-Focus of Youth Social Entrepreneurship

Making Change ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190849795.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 10-17

Author(s):

Tina P. Kruse

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Social Entrepreneurship ◽

Culturally Relevant ◽

Young Person ◽

Youth Leadership ◽

Human Flourishing ◽

Career Trajectory ◽

Culturally Relevant Practices ◽

Cultural Reality

This chapter explores the “asset-based” frameworks in both positive youth development and community. This chapter also orients the reader to the link between youth social entrepreneurship’s grounding in the central theme of positive psychology: human flourishing. Instead of focusing on the incremental steps toward getting any job at all, the emphasis is on youth capacity for creating a positive career trajectory, supported by exposure to a breadth of opportunity instead of a narrow pipeline. To accomplish meaningful and authentic positivity, the cultural reality of each young person and each community must be included in the experience of development. Therefore, a review of culturally relevant pedagogies and the need for valuing cultural funds of knowledge is included. All together, the asset-focused, culturally relevant practices can foster youth leadership with social entrepreneurship that paves a road toward thriving.

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11. Social Capital and Civil Society

Democratization ◽

10.1093/hepl/9780199233021.003.0011 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Natalia Letki

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Civil Society ◽

Political Change ◽

New Democracies ◽

Modern Democracy ◽

Civic Activism ◽

Trust And Reciprocity ◽

Context Specific ◽

The Relationship

This chapter examines the role of civil society and social capital in democratization processes. It begins by reconstructing the definitions of civil society and social capital in the context of political change, followed by an analysis of the ways in which civil society and social capital are functional for the initiation and consolidation of democracies. It then considers the relationship between civil society and attitudes of trust and reciprocity, the function of networks and associations in democratization, paradoxes of civil society and social capital in new democracies, and main arguments cast against the idea that civic activism and attitudes are a necessary precondition for a modern democracy. The chapter argues that civil society and social capital and their relation to political and economic institutions are context specific.

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