Youth Development

Building Collaboration for Mental Health Services in California Schools is an initiative funded by the California Department of Education through California’s Mental Health Services Act. This project aims to engage mental health and education professionals in an effective planning process to prepare for implementing California’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) in schools.

This technical assistance center serves 10 local communities working to reduce and prevent youth substance abuse by increasing understanding and practice of evidence-based strategies and collaboration between communities. Methods include monthly trainings, regional facilitation with community leaders, e-newsletters, a Web portal and local community coaching.

The Tribal Youth Program (TYP) Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Center addresses the need to strengthen American Indian and Alaska Native juvenile justice and other systems–education, mental health and social services, culture, recreation and employment programs–all critical to Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s mission of reducing juvenile delinquency, violence, child victimization, and increasing the safety of tribal communities.

EDC and SSRE are working with SADD to develop and test a youth-informed and youth-delivered social marketing campaign, as well as other program components, aimed at reducing underage drinking among high school students. Our work includes formative research with youth, parents, and school-community members needed to guide program and measurement development as well as an initial pilot test of the SADD campaign and related program efforts.

CSE is developing activity materials for informal science educators who work with middle school youth in extended investigations of living phenomena. This three-year project involves both the development of activities and controlled applied research, studying the role of different modes of visual representations, as well as the impact of the units themselves on the preparation for future learning and attitudes of participating youth. CSE is collaborating on this project with PERG, Boston Nature Center, and University of New Hampshire 4-H.

Yes-2-Technology (Y2T) is a physical, life and earth science, IT and workforce development project for teens at the St. Louis Science Center. Funded by NSF’s ITEST program, the goal of the project is to provide disadvantaged teens with the opportunity to broaden their STEM and workplace skills and encourage them to consider further education and careers in IT or STEM.