child care - Digital Library Collections

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
ADO L ESC EN T PRE G NAN C Y .... have the motivation to defer parenthood and the tools to compete and succeed in the work force. These include an adequate education, access to a good job, and the means to attain economic selfsufficiency. Providing those opportunities requires a wide range ofstrategies: strengthening our educational system, restoring communities that have become hazardous to the well-being of children and families, making early childhood development programs available, and working to combat the multiple problems associated with child poverty. We should take specific steps to: • Increase federal and state investments in comprehensive youth development initiatives, including job training, that are targeted to improving the economic, educational, social, and psychological condition of disadvantaged teens. The federal government should help lead the way by developing a comprehensive youth development agenda and promoting model programs. • Expand investments in after-school and summer programs for all teenagers, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods. These recreational and enrichment programs in structured, supervised settings can help reduce opportunities for the risk-taking behaviors that often occur after the school day ends and before parents return home from work, and during summer months. • Expand mentoring and tutoring programs in all communities. Volunteers-from civic groups, congregations, youth-serving organizations, local businesses, fraternities and sororities, and other community-based organizations-can provide guidance and positive role models. • Support and strengthen age-appropriate family life education and comprehensive school-based or school-linked services that promote adolescent health and pregnancy prevention. These programs need the extensive involvement of parents and close collaboration with education, health, and other officials. Only with a shared understanding of teens' needs and a strong local consensus about how to address them can such programs succeed. • Invest in research and evaluation to help develop the most effective approaches to preventing teenage pregnancy, and disseminate that information to state and local entities. CHILDREN'S DEFE SE FUND 101
Page 2 and 3:
About CDF he Children's Defense Fun
Page 4 and 5:
Copyright © 1998 by Children's Def
Page 6 and 7:
Acknowledgments Susanne Martinez, d
Page 8 and 9:
THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEA
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
_____T...:H_._E... S T ATE 0 F AM E
Page 22 and 23:
.... T...-HE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHI
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
....._--"T..;H;;..;;;.E STATE OF AM
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
......._---'T;..;;.;;H....;;E STATE
Page 48 and 49:
'--__...;T;...;;;H...;E;;....S T AT
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
L-__T.HE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDRE
Page 74 and 75: THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEA
Page 77 and 78: CHAPTER CHILD NUTRITION any America
Page 79 and 80: CHILD NUTRITION gram requirements,
Page 81 and 82: .... ..,;C;;..;,;H..;I;.,.L;;;.,;;D
Page 83 and 84: CHILD NUTRITION ;;0".;'-'- .... pro
Page 85 and 86: .... ....;;.c H I L D N U TR IT I O
Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CR
Page 89 and 90: CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CRISIS pas
Page 91 and 92: CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CRISIS in
Page 93 and 94: CHILDREN A D FAMILIES IN CRISIS kin
Page 95 and 96: CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CRISIS Box
Page 97 and 98: '-- C~H,;,.;I L D R E NAN D F A MIL
Page 99: CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CRISI""S"-
Page 117 and 118: CHAPTER ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY fter r
Page 119 and 120: ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY 512,115 babies
Page 121 and 122: ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY sexual activit
Page 123: ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY ings. However,
Page 130 and 131: 106 CHI L D R EN' S D E FEN S E FUN
Page 134 and 135: THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDRE YEAR
Page 140 and 141: THE STATE OF AMERICA'S HILDREN YEAR
Page 148 and 149: Selected Web Sites Listed below are
show all

child care - Digital Library Collections

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?