Youth Development Programs

Delivered March 16th, 2018. Contributors: Cara R., Victor E., Ashley N. and

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Youth Development Programs

Youth development is a broad category which includes social-emotional well-being, healthy decision-making, positive relationship traits, sports development, and educational and workforce training. Well-known programs include 4-H, Lions Quest, Passport to Success, and Youth Guidance. Some programs offer varying modules based on age group; however, all the programs we've listed offer specific programs for high school age youth. These programs have also been entered on the attached spreadsheet. 

METHODOLOGYSeveral reputable, pre-compiled sources were used as a starting point in identifying youth development programs. For example, "Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development," a registry of evidence-based, youth development programs for children and teens, allows the user to filter programs based on age, scope, and purpose. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services hosts the "Child Information Gateway", a resource for identifying positive youth development programs. We cross-referenced these sources and compiled a list of organizations that appeared on more than one list and/or provided evidence of research-based positive outcomes. Our results include several organizations that work in both the U.S. and internationally, as well as those that reach both younger children and high-school-aged youth. By eliminating organizations primarily focused on youth development in a particular sport, as well as those focusing on youth leadership development, we were able to find 11 entries that best meet your criteria. 

 LIONS QUEST Lions Quest is a program of the "Lions Clubs International Foundation" and the Skills for Action program is specifically designed for high school students. The specialized curriculum goes beyond the classroom to engage participants in civic duty and build critical social and emotional health, as well as strengthen academic and workplace skills. Students are empowered to make healthy choices, understand and embrace diversity, and resist negative peer pressure.
 
 4-H  4‑H is dedicated to creating programs that help youth become responsible citizens capable of leading healthy, productive lives using critical, science-focused innovations.  4-H works with Tufts University (and has for 10+ years) to "study the effectiveness of its youth development programs". One such research study found that the program's unique hands-on approach provides youth with the opportunity build life skills through interaction.

 NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH CHALLENGE The National Guard Youth Challenge program is available to youth ages 16–18 for whom traditional high school programs are not a good fit.  Operated by state National Guard groups supported by federal funds, the program was launched in the mid-1990s and currently has 40 sites in 29 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The program includes a 5.5-month residential phase, followed by a year-long mentorship program. The stated program goal is "to intervene in and reclaim the lives of 16 to 18-year-old high school dropouts, producing program graduates with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed as productive citizens."

 YOUTH BUILD Youth Build is offered in the U.S. through YouthBuild USA and globally (in 15 countries) through YouthBuild International, working with low-income 16 to 24-year-olds who are not in school and unemployed. The organization provides opportunities for education, entrepreneurship, and life skills training leading to productive and contributing livelihoods. A key element of the program is teaching construction skills to rebuild communities.

 YOUTH GUIDANCE Chicago-based Youth Guidance offers several highly acclaimed, evidence-based programs for high school youth. In addition to the nationally recognized Becoming a Man® (BAM) program for high school males and sister program WOW — Working on Womanhood ™ for high school females, the organization's STRIVE program helps high school youth in the foster care system develop successful social emotional behaviors. 

 PASSPORT TO SUCCESS Offered in over 50 countries, Passport to Success has provided over 185,000 youth with life skills and workforce training to be successful as adults. The program is offered through corporations, non-profits, government agencies, and schools.

 TEEN OUTREACH PROGRAM The Teen Outreach Program was created by the Wyman Center and is an evidence-based program designed to equip teens with skills to avoid high risk behaviors and "develop into healthy, thriving adults" through social-emotional learning. Wyman offers numerous programs through a variety of local and national partners, and has made a difference in 150,000 teen lives since 2010. 

 PROJECT TOWARDS NO DRUG ABUSE Project Towards No Drug Abuse serves youth ages 15-18 in a classroom setting and promotes drug awareness and prevention.  The curriculum provides students with skills needed for self-control, communication, and decision-making. The program was developed by Dr. Steve Sussman and staff at the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

 BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS OF AMERICA Though not limited to high school youth, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America is a well-recognized program (founded in 1904) which matches children and teens with caring adults for mentorship and guidance. The program has demonstrated success in reducing anti-social behaviors, improving academic successes, and enhancing peer and family relationships.

 PREVENTION PLUS WELLNESS Prevention Plus Wellness is an evidence-based prevention program that promotes physical well-being among youth by highlighting the positive benefits of an active lifestyle. Additionally, the program increases skills for better stress management and greater self-identity.

 EISENHOWER QUANTUM OPPORTUNITIES Quantum Opportunities is a youth development model used in several U.S. cities for at risk, minority youth. Originally developed by the Ford Foundation, it was later embraced and modified by the Eisenhower Foundation. The program is designed to improve educational success, such as higher grades and high school graduation rates. 

CONCLUSIONWrapping up, we've provided a list of 11 youth development programs on the attached spreadsheet. Youth development is a broad term which covers social-emotional well-being, healthy decision-making, educational and workforce training, and more. Well-known programs include 4-H, Lions Quest, Passport to Success, and Youth Guidance.

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Youth Development Programs - Competitive Landscape 1

A brainchild of Lions Quest International in Oak Brook, Lions Quest makes strategic partnerships with other organizations to promote social and emotional learning to transform the world of domination and exploitation into one of collaboration and partnership. 4-H is offered by Our Nation's Cooperative Extension System and USDA and their prime focus is to empower people with life skills, achieved with a mentor, a meaningful leadership opportunity, and a hands-on project. The National Guard Youth Challenge program is offered by the National Guard; while Youth Build is made possible by YouthBuild Inc. USA. The youth development programs profiled in this request have all had laudable impacts. National Guard Youth Challenge has helped about 145,000 students to graduation to date; Youth Build's pioneered 33,000 affordable homes to be built; 4-H has given about 6 million people across the US with skills to lead for a lifetime; and Lions Quest is responsible for 82% decline in in-school suspensions and improved GPA by 9%.

We researched extensively on the respective websites of the programs covered in this request. Also, we researched blogs, related press releases, and credible articles to source and report the most viable competitive landscape of these youth development programs. However, giving the functions of these programs, there were no publicly available sources to rank them based on revenue generated through grants or donations. In keeping our focus on the questions initially requested for these programs, we have detailed all relevant information in the attached spreadsheet. 
FindingsYouth Build is assumed to be qualified as a charitable organization, hence, they function by accepting grants and donations, as confirmed on their homepage. The National Guide function as a community based programs, they do not have any pricing details, and they confirm in their official description to be cost-free. On other hand, 4-H's pricing comes in the form of accepting different categories of funds for its fundraising activities, and by the sales of tickets to their events. Lions Quest has three different pricing categories viz for growing pre-k, adolescents, and high school, respectively.

Notably, all the youth development programs profiled in this request have had laudable effects. There are quite a of number of impacts from each of these programs, hence, we have outlined them, including other required details, in this attached spreadsheet.
ConclusionYouth Build's efforts has seen 33,000 affordable homes built; 4-H has given about 6 million people across the US with skills to lead for a lifetime; and Lions Quest is responsible for 82% decline in in-school suspensions and improved GPA by 9%. The National Guard Youth Challenge has helped about 145,000 students to graduation to date.

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Youth Development Programs - Competitive Landscape 2

We have a completed a competitive landscape of the youth development programs located in rows 6-9 in the attached spreadsheet. For this portion of the spreadsheet, we analyzed the following four programs: Youth Guidance, Passport to Success, Teen Outreach Program, and Project Towards No Drug Abuse.  Below, you will find a deep dive of our findings. 

METHODOLOGY In order to locate findings for this landscape, we focused primarily on the official websites of these programs. These websites were very useful in providing the bulk of the information requested for each program. Some programs listed provided more robust information on their websites than others. In cases where the information could not be located on the program's website, we searched extensively through trusted media sources, news articles, press releases and authority sites to locate the information. Please note that our collective research findings did not locate any pricing information for Passport to Success, nor for Youth Guidance. Despite this, we have aimed to include any useful information that pertained to these programs within the available research time-frame. 

You can access your spreadsheet here. 

CONCLUSION 
In closing, we have conducted a deep dive of Youth Guidance, Passport to Success, Teen Outreach Program, and Project Towards No Drug Abuse and implemented our findings into the attached spreadsheet. 

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Youth Development Programs - Competitive Landscape 3

Praised as the only evidence-based program in the US, Preventive Plus Wellness is designed primarily for promoting physical health activities and sports, and is offered by Preventive Plus Wellness, LLC. Offered by the Eisenhower Foundation, the Quantum Opportunities program centers on serving disadvantaged adolescents by offering them financial incentives as well as education, and service and development activities. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a community mentorship program offered by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America non-profit organization. Focused on reducing antisocial behaviors for adolescents and mentoring children at risk, its major impact has seen children achieve success in school, avoid risky behaviors such as trying drugs at school, and improved the self-confidence of children and youths who partake in the program. The Quantum Opportunities program welcomes any organization intending to start its program, however a fee of $145,200 would have to be incurred by the organization for the first year.

To research the competitive landscape of the youth development programs in this request, we took a deep dive research approach on their respective websites, press releases, news articles, and credible blogs. However, after extensive research, no publicly available sources were found to develop a quantitative landscape for any of the programs on this request. Even the impacts of their respective programs were not measured in numbers of people affected, neither was there any publicly available sources to show or triangulate a competitive landscape based on revenue or number of persons who participate in their programs. Hence, we kept our research focus primarily on the required questions of this request, and have provided our research findings in this attached spreadsheet.
FindingsWhile Big Brothers Big Sister does not have an annual membership fee, it charges $30 for background check during its application process and it allows an organization willing to start the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for about 250 youths to incur a cost of $328,000. The only pricing mentioned by the Quantum Opportunities program is the $145,200 an organization willing to start their program would have to pay. However, Preventive Plus Wellness program, which is divided into SPORT/InShape Prevention Plus Wellness Certified Program Implementer's Training, and SPORT/InShape Prevention Plus Wellnes Certified Training of Trainer goes for a price of $499 and $999, respectively.

As requested, we have filled the required details for the profiled youth developments programs in this attached spreadsheet.
ConclusionThe Quantum Opportunities program centers on serving disadvantaged adolescents by offering them financial incentives as well as education, and service and development activities. The Preventive Plus Wellness is designed primarily for promoting physical health activities and sports, and is offered by Preventive Plus Wellness, LLC; while the Big Brother Big Sisters program focuses on on reducing antisocial behaviors for adolescents and mentoring children at risk.