Provincial Consortium on Youth in Recreation

Here is a short 11 page read about the factors that contribute to Successful Youth Centres. This document was created by the Heartwood Centre for community Youth Development in Nova Scotia.

What Makes For A Successful Youth Centre?

Here is an interesting 64 page resource put out by The Health Communication Unit at the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. It provides step-by-step outline on how to make change work in Youth Centres. 5 youth centres were involved in testing out the process (Dryden Youth Centre, Midland Youth Centre, Sault Ste. Marie Teen Centre, Smith Falls & District Club for Youth, and the Solid Rock Youth Centre. It’s a nice, easy to read planning process.

Making Changes Work in Youth Centres Step by Step

Here is the latest release of statistical information about adolescent obesity. In the past 25 years, obesity for youth ages 12 to 17 years has tripled, moving from 3% to 9% of that age population. This is the shorter version of the press release around general obesity in Canada (2004).

Canadian Community Health Survey: Obesity among children and adults

In the age of technology, we can better use this resource by first understanding who and what our clients relate to. This link is a quick overview of findings from research into what youth think and like about various different websites – what turns them on, what drives them away, and what keeps them there. If you are really interested in this topic, you could buy the 128 page report or, if you just want to get a bit more acquainted with the topic of youth and websites, read the overview in the link and test your website against what it is saying that youth want.

Usability of Websites for Teenagers

The Health Communication Unit at the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, did some research as to what appeals to tweens, ages 9 to 14. While this information was designed to help health promoters create messages that will catch the tweens’ eyes and interests, you can just substitute your recreation program promotion message and it will work for you too! The suggestions are short and simple and easy to follow. You could even create a check list to remind yourself each time to create something for this age group to make sure it will be attractive to them. And, if you want some more detailed facts to use, check out the Analysis Data in the About This Profile section at the end of the report.

Tweens (age 9–14) Audience Profile

Check out this website from down under where they have loads of fun with icebreakers and games. Here is a great quote that is on this home page “Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box” – Italian proverb.

Index to Group Activities, Games, Exercises & Initiatives

This is an interesting read out of the States that speaks to how Foundations are viewing their funding programs for children and youth activities. You can use this information to a) better understand what potential funders may be thinking as they review your applications, and b) see where our funding bodies might be headed in the future. We certainly hope this latter piece has some truth to it as there is great interest in funding youth development south of the border! It may seem like a long read, but it’s really not, there is just lots of big print!

New Strategies in Foundation Grantmaking for Children and Youth

This program is for Ontario communities only, however the information included would be useful in any community. The Play Works Partnership (www.playworkspartnership.ca) is encouraging communities to apply to be recognized as ‘youth friendly.’ Agencies, municipalities, and/or youth groups can submit the application for their community. Whether your community chooses to apply or not, the youth friendly criteria is great information to start incorporating into youth development strategies in your neighbourhood.

As a Youth Friendly Community Small and Rural Communities – Lessons from the Field

The Heartwood Institute in Nova Scotia supports youth development. Here is a paper with commentary from youth action teams as to how the Institute successfully incorporates youth in the picture, and the driver's seat, in a meaningful way. It's a good self-check list against your agency's or department's offerings.

HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIPS FOR COMMUNITY ACTION

Here is a link to an executive summary (8 page) and a full document (many pages!) on the health and wellbeing of Canada’s youth (a representative sample of 11, 13 and 15 year olds). This summary is a great sensitizer on youth in general, with the full document probing deeper into socio-economic inequalities, the home, the peer group, the school experience, health risk behaviours, healthy living, bullying and fighting, injuries and emotional health.

Young people in Canada: their health and well-being: Executive Summary

The Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres researched what kept youth participating in recreational opportunities. OAYEC found that youth say that their top reasons for joining recreation programs is to have fun and learn new things. They also tell us that employability skills learning and the prospect of getting a job through recreation is part of their decision. Read this report and learn some things that you might want to build into your youth recreation program to attract them and keep them involved.

Starting and Staying on Track: Youth Motivations in Participating in Recreation

This is an interesting 28 page manual from New South Wales (Australia) on developing a protocol for malls relative to youth customers. As a result of an increase in the numbers of youth being banned from local malls, this initiative set out to improve relationships between young people, security personnel and shopping centre management. The processes in this document can be generally translated into action in other facilities in which youth and other user groups might co-exist. Worth the read!

Shopping for a Solution

Here is an interesting article on how urban parks help promote asset development in youth. Of particular interest is youth leadership development through parks and some information on experiential learning through parks. It’s an easy read at 8 pages and helps build the case to help get youth into green settings.

Urban Parks as Partners in Youth Development

Here is a resource from the New South Wales (Australia) Commission for Children & Young People. This 4-part manual (of which you can print off each section individually) is designed as a check list to help organizations reflect on and take stock of how effectively children and youth are being included in their work, activities and decision-making processes. It’s a nice easy read in a sequential 9 step ‘why’ to ‘how’ to ‘how goes it’ progression.

Research and Resources About Participation

Here are two reports by the Child Trends Databank. While this information comes from the States, it provides some interesting commentary on youth participation (past grade in school athletics  and youth participation in school music or other performing arts programs. Both speak to participation trends and comment on aspects of participation that are influenced by gender, parental involvement and post secondary aspirations. These are not long reports, and provide summary graphics of participation.

Participation in School Music or Other Performing Arts

Participation in School Athletics

The following summary of the proposed competencies for a Youth Development Worker and a summary of a proposed recruitment and selection process might be of interest to you and to those who will be hiring for these positions. For a more extended list of competencies, please contact Norma McDonald-Ewing at Conestoga College.

Competencies

Recruitment and Selection of YDW

This 36 page document is a really good read about the role of youth serving programs and organizations, how youth benefit from those organizations that are youth and learning focused, and the role the community should and could take in supporting youth development. It also includes a series of recommendations for Community, Youth Organizations, Schools, Funders and Policy Makers. It was created for the Public Education Network out of Washington, DC.

Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development

Check out this interesting administrative report to the City of Vancouver Council (British Columbia, Canada). The purpose of the report is to request support for the Vancouver Civic Youth Strategy. The CYS was adopted in 1995. This particular report recommends that the Council request the Park Board, the Vancouver School Board, the Vancouver Police Board and other City departments to work with Social Planning to fully implement the goals of the CYS. This is an example of an integrated and detailed strategy that may be able to be used as a template by other communities.

Vancouver Civic Youth Strategy Administrative Report

The following resource has more to do with children than youth but, because it appears to be so well done and that -with creativity – many of the activities can be translated into youth specific ones, here it is. It’s a nearly 100 page resource on fun social activities through which younger and older generations can learn to better understand and appreciate one another. This resource is worth a pass on to the children’s’ or older adults’ program in your area.

Intergenerational Activities Sourcebook

This tool may be considered more generic in nature (as compared to youth specific) but it is good for use with youth (and also children and has applicability to adults and seniors too). It’s a great resource to help front-line coaches, leaders or instructors improve their ability to attract and retain participants of various ages in physical activity and it offers leaders advice about moving barriers, developing skills, and enhancing motivation for life-long participation in physical activity. Developed by representatives from Parks and Recreation Ontario, OPHEA, THCU, York University, OASES, the Ontario Fitness Council and others the toolkits are now available on the Active Ontario web site. From this site, just click ‘go to table of contents’ and peruse the pieces you want to download. It’s worth the paper!

Active2010

Statistics Canada occasionally produces information about trends and research comparisons. Here is a quick release about Adolescence Self-Concept and Health into Adulthood. It gives a really really really brief comparison between studies in 1994/5 and 2000/01. Even those of us who don’t like research can understand and use this info

Adolescence Self-Concept and Health into Adulthood

In October, the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples released its Final Report on Urban Aboriginal Youth: An Action Plan for Change. Of interest may be parts IV and V, one speaks to Key Principles for Effective Services Delivery, and the other speaks to The Needs of Youth with a specific area 1.3 on Sport, Education and Recreation.

Final Report on Urban Aboriginal Youth: An Action Plan for Change

If you are interested in ways in which adults can meaningfully and proactively support youth, then this is a really nice easy and quick resource for you to read and use. Adapted from Search Institute materials, and with a school flavour that can be adapted to pretty much any youth-related environment, this is a tool that you can use to help educate staff, volunteers, and elected officials on ways to engage youth.

50 Ways Adults Can Support Student Voice

This piece, called Finding Out What Matters for Youth: Testing Key Links in a Community Action for Youth Development Framework, works to show the link between youth development and its impact on having positive outcomes for young adults. For example, youth with poor developmental outcomes at the end of high school are 156 percent more likely to have poor outcomes as young adults. In contrast, youth with good developmental outcomes are 41 percent more likely to thrive as young adults. It is a bit of a heady read, but it nicely links research and observations. This report was prepared for Youth Development Strategies Inc and the Institute for Research and Reform in Education.

Finding Out What Matters for Youth: Testing Key Links in a Community Action for Youth Development Framework

Here is a nicely done tool to help you evaluate your peer mentoring programs. It is for youth who are in a youth/adult mentoring relationship and is for those ages 9 and up. The tool is very well laid out, easy to use, and shows how to interpret the information collected from the youth. It’s 40 pages long but worth the file or print if you run mentoring programs or may do so in the future.

Measuring the Quality of Mentor-Youth Relationships: A Tool for Mentoring Programs

This is a link to a new resource – Fire It Up! – Is a toolkit for youth action, produced by the Youth Action Network 2002. A great manual with lots of in depth information on how youth can make positive changes in their communities. It’s a long read (88 pages), but it provides many tools to help empower youth.

Fire It Up! – A Youth Action Manual

More and more youth are out at the skateparks. This is an activity around which an increasing amount of discussion is taking place. So, here is a website that might help you: learn more about boarding as an activity and as a specific youth culture; look at various different approaches to providing this activity (e.g. temporary, permanent, portable); and how to get a skatepark started in your area. It’s an excellent resource website where you should be able to find the answers to most of your questions.

Skatepark.org

his report is the compilation of a 6 year American study that worked with 6 communities to help build and sustain a community-wide infrastructure to support positive youth development. There were 10 key and critical lessons learned from that undertaking.

Ten Lessons From The CCYD Initiativet

This is a resource guide on starting a peer mentoring program for youth in sport and recreation. This guide was developed through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ontario and the Ontario Provincial Consortium on Youth in Recreation in 2001 as part of an International Year of the Volunteer funding initiative through the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation. This resource complemented a series of one day peer mentoring workshops that were held at that time (you can ignore the reference to the workshops and just use the resource as a stand-alone document).

Recreation Resource Manual

Here’s a report from the Canadian Council on Social Development and the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations. Whether or not you work or volunteer for a not for profit agency, this information might be of interest to you as, if you are a municipal representative, it has implications of what kinds of funding and financial challenges currently, and are anticipated to, face these groups. Ripple effects are something that can affect us in interesting ways so you may want to check out the ‘summary’ or components of the ‘full’ report.

http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2003/fm/

Here is a resource site which contains information on approaches to mentoring and coaching. While it is focussed on adults, there are many resources that are transferable to creating youth mentoring or coaching programs. It’s a Canadian site with a variety of content in a variety of areas. Well worth a 15 minute site orientation visit.

http://www.mentors.ca/peer.htm

CYD, Community Youth Development, is a movement that supports the democratic belief that healthy communities engage both youth and adults in their local ventures. Carlos, a 17 year old quoted in this 10 page document, says “When I participate, I change myself, my family and my community.” This really is youth development at its best. Of particular interest in this document are the last two pages which show how assumptions can move to become strategies with specified outcomes and measurable impacts.

View the framework

The Center for Youth Development and Policy Research (USA) has authored a series of articles on youth development mobilization strategies. In basic terms, they have looked at what youth development is, the cost of youth development, how youth spend their time, what should be spent, and what are the anticipated returns on investment when the spending takes place. It’s a great example of how to gather and interpret information to validate the need for and benefits of a youth development approach.

Cost of Youth Development

The Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres has developed a PFD “tool kit” on how to add a youth volunteer program to youth employment centres. The information and philosophies are also relevant to other youth-specific services so it’s worth a check out of the easy to read 22 pages at

Youth & Volunteer Toolkit

Karen Pittman is one of the leading experts on youth development. Here is a recent article she authored on Communities Supporting Youth and Youth Supporting Communities. An easy 6 page read.

http://www.cydjournal.org/2002SprSum/Anthology_Pittman.pdf

Here’s an interesting link to a variety of games to use as icebreakers or activities with children and youth. Some may be very familiar to you, others may be new. The nice thing is that they are all in one location and easily printable (if you go into a section where there are questions and answers, don’t forget to click on the answers area too so that you can print them off!). Please note that not all games and activities have been reviewed and that SPRYNT is not responsible for approving any content at this site.

funandgames.org

Here’s a nice 25 or so page read of the 2002 Canadian Public Opinion Survey on Youth and Sport from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. This July report provides some good information on: the impact of sport on youth values; values promoted by community sport; broader community benefits; problems facing sport; and a copy of the survey tool used.

2002 Canadian Public Opinion Survey on Youth and Sport

Here’s an interesting concept called “community youth mapping”, where youth go out and find out what’s in their community for them. There’s general info on mapping and an easy-to-understand 10 step process outlined on this web site. Enjoy!

Community Youth Mapping

This article is a bit dated (1999) but you may not have seen it yet and it’s quite insightful. It was authored by the Health Canada and is entitled Healthy Development of Children and Youth: The Role of the Determinants of Health. It’s 30 pages long, you need Adobe to read it.

The Role of the Determinants of Health

Here is an interesting resource from the Canadian Research Policy Networks Inc. (CPRN). The resource may seem a bit “heady” as it’s a literature review of youth and citizenship, but it’s an interesting read in terms of looking at youth within the context of the larger community.

Canadian Research Policy Networks Inc. (CPRN)

The CPRN is in the process of looking at recreation in terms of its relationship to youth and citizenship development. This is a much shorter read, because it is just speaking to the process they will be undertaking, but there are some nice references and footnotes that are usable in any funding application or presentation on youth services.

Youth Recreation: A Pathway to Citizenship

Here’s some information on children with special needs. While SPRYNT is dedicated more to youth service providers, many of you may be interested in this information released on November 20, National Child Day and, specifically, its reference to recreation programs. About 461,000 children aged 6 to 11 have physical, intellectual or learning disabilities, emotional problems, chronic health conditions or a combination that leave them at risk of being excluded from many opportunities the majority of Canadian children take for granted, says the Canadian Council on Social Development report. The biggest needs were for resources for children with emotional and mental health problems, followed by recreation programs and school services. You can view both the summary report and the full report.

How non profits can reach young adults.

http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=313

There seems to be a great deal of interest in research articles and in program information. We suggest that you use the Lifestyle Information Network to help you get information you seek on parks, recreation, sport and leisure services. At lin.ca you will find a searchable recreation data base, a listing of relevant training and development activities, and a myriad of other resources and options. If you haven’t already done it, bookmark LIN now.

http://lin.ca

This is a solid article from Australia on how to work to include women and girls in sports and recreation activities. There are some points to note and then a series of best practice examples within Australian groups to show how they have applied the policy and concept to practice.

http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1999/ascpub/strategies_practice.pdf

Here is a Statistics Canada site that speaks to the benefits of sports and recreation for children and youth.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/010530/dq010530a-eng.htm