By Brian McNeill When developing a lesson, event or program for youth, it can be hard to think about what will appeal to encourage youth to register and attend your program. Will it be the food, the activity, the time of day or the lesson that will really get their attention? Fireworks before, during and after? How can we compete for their time and attention? Planning can be a real challenge and it can make a youth worker wonder, “Is my program is relevant to youth today?” Those of us who have been in the field for a while see patterns. We can identify what will interest families and what programs to avoid. But for a young professional, it can be hard to know what will grab a young person’s attention and keep them coming back. Another challenge is that we must also prove to our stakeholders that our programming is valuable for youth and benefits the community. Daniel Perkins and Lynne Borden did some research on this. In Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies and Pract
Our youth development educators bridge research and practice. In this blog, they offer their views on what's happening in the field of youth development, with an eye to evidence-based research written by themselves and others in our field. We welcome your comments.