Positive Youth Development & Movement Organizing in the Black Radical Traditions of the US South

Don Hellison fully realized that getting students to become positive contributors to their community meant that experiences that engender a greater sense of being a responsible person had to be provided. He leveraged the power of out-of-school time programming to implement his Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model and build relationships with variety of underserved youth. Don also understood that community partnerships were important in this effort. This article provides a glimpse at how Don was able to establish TPSR programs in a variety of out-of-school settings—all of which addressed the needs of underserved children and youth. A historical context is provided to illustrate the placement of TPSR in the broader movement of positive youth development. Don’s programs that operated during out-of-school time and spanned the western region of the country to the urban sections of Chicago are described. Inconsistent partner support, scarcity of program space, and feelings of self-doubt are presented as challenges to the viability of TPSR programming. His commitment to making programs work despite these challenges is portrayed. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to illustrate how Don’s work has made a significant contribution to the positive youth development movement within out-of-school time contexts.

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The five Cs of positive youth development in Norway

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025416645668 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 41 (5) ◽

pp. 559-569 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Ingrid Holsen ◽

John Geldhof ◽

Torill Larsen ◽

Elisabeth Aardal

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

The United States ◽

Positive Development ◽

School Students ◽

Two Samples ◽

The Us ◽

Five Cs ◽

Using Data

As the field of positive youth development (PYD) emerges internationally, models of PYD designed for use in the US must be extended to diverse contexts. For instance, a robust body of evidence supports Lerner and colleagues’ Five Cs Model of PYD in the US, but it remains unclear whether the Five Cs Model can validly capture positive development in other contexts. In this article we examined the Five Cs of PYD using data from 1195 upper secondary school students (ages 16 to 19) in Norway and 839 participants who took part in the 4-H Study of PYD in the United States. Despite some differences, the tests of weak and strong measurement invariance do suggest that the overarching PYD factor as well as a majority of the Cs, retain their qualitative interpretation between the two samples. We next examined correlations between the full battery of PYD items administered to the Norwegian sample and three relevant criterion measures: Anxiety and Depressive symptoms; Life Satisfaction; and Empowerment. The residual Cs tended to correlate positively with indicators of adaptive development and negatively with maladaptive outcomes. The one exception was a positive correlation between Caring and Anxiety and Depressive symptoms. These findings are discussed. Measuring the same constructs in the same way across countries is a prerequisite for studying cultural differences and similarities in development. This study thus represents a step forward in the application of PYD research among diverse youth.

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