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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
serves both girls and boys, engaging them in supervised
volunteer work in the community, classroombased
discussions, and activities related to key
social-developmental tasks of adolescence. Students
are both self-selected and recommended by
their teachers.
Ingredients for success. The philosophy behind
TOP is based on research fIndings that problem
behaviors among teens occur in clusters, not as
single events. The expectation, therefore, is that
well-designed interventions can bring results on
several fronts at the same time. The TOP approach
focuses on four interrelated strategies:
• Youth development. To help young people
achieve their full potential, TOP sets high expectations
and clear standards, engages teens
in meaningful activities, provides opportunities
for them to contribute, and fosters lasting
relationships with caring, supportive adults.
• Community involvement. TOP participants undertake
service-related activities that reconnect
them to their communities. All sectors of
the community support such efforts.
• Learner-centered education. The classroom
component of TOP is guided by a curriculum,
"Changing Scenes." Young people do most of
the talking, and adults act as guides in discussions
about observations and emotions. Both
the classroom activities and the community
service projects emphasize hands-on learning.
• Academic extensions. Teens have an opportunity
to apply what they learn in school to the
positive development of their communities.
Using interdisciplinary learning techniques,
TOP facilitators help students connect skills
learned in core school subjects to workplace
requirements in their service assignments.
What sets TOP apart from many other prevention
programs is that it does not explicitly focus on
the problem behaviors it seeks to prevent. Instead
it works on enhancing teens' competence in decision
making, interacting with peers and adults, and
identifying and handling their own emotions. Ac-
cording to Dr. Joseph Allen, professor of psychology
at the University ofVirginia and one ofTOP's
primary evaluators, this approach means that the
program "may be politically acceptable in communities
where programs that explicitly focus upon
sexual behavior may not be feasible to implement."
Payoffs for participants. Since 1978, when the
program began, TOP has made a difference in the
lives ofmore than 12,000 young people. In the most
recent nationwide evaluation, conducted between
1991 and 1995 and published in August 1997, 700
high school students at 25 sites with Teen Outreach
Programs were randomly assigned to either TOP or
a control group. When their circumstances were
compared at the end of the nine-month program,
rates ofpregnancy, school failure, and academic suspension
were substantially lower among those who
attended TOP. They demonstrated an II percent
lower rate of course failure in school, 14 percent
fewer school suspensions, a 60 percent lower dropoutrate,
and 33 percentfewer pregnancies. Students
said thatwhat affected their behavior mostwas "feeling
safe," "being listened to and respected," "having
input in selecting the work they do," and being encouraged
to see themselves as competentindividuals
who could be autonomous but still connected to
other young people and adults.
The extent to which TOP can be expanded to
other sites or successfully replicated elsewhere depends
on a community's capacity to commit resources
and human energy to reproducing TOP's
critical elements. Local models can be school-led,
community-sponsored, or jointly developed by educators
and community leaders, but the core principles
and components cannot be compromised if
success is to occur.
Moving Forward: A 1998 Agenda
for Action
T:e problems that plague so many teenagers
today, including pregnancy, cannot be overcome
unless we find ways to give these young
people a belief in themselves and their futures. If
they are to develop their full potential, they must
100 CHI L D R EN' S D E FEN S E FUN D