The Youth Development Handbook: Coming of Age in American Communities

―Francisco A. Villarruel, Michigan State University

―Lonnie Sherrod, Fordham University

―John Kretzmann, Northwestern University

―Philip Newman, University of Rhode Island

What are the types of environments in which youth thrive? How do we cultivate such environments to promote optimal development and positive behavior in youth? The Youth Development Handbook: Coming of Age in American Communities provides youth and development practitioners access to current theory and research in the field of youth development, including illustrations of good practice, original case studies, and a contextual approach to such topics as youth participation and diversity.

Because youth practitioners typically identify themselves with one or more contexts, such as youth-serving organizations or faith-based organizations, editors Stephen F. Hamilton and Mary Agnes Hamilton have arranged the book so that each chapter explores the application of youth development principles to its context, drawing on current research. Part I of the book is organized around contexts in which adolescents grow up, such as schools, workplaces, families, peer groups, youth-serving organizations, faith-based organizations, recreation groups, juvenile courts, health clinics, neighborhoods, and cyberspace. Part II addresses broader issues such as evaluation, funding, and community-wide initiatives and the concluding chapter identifies themes that cut across contexts, including mentoring, universal vs. targeted approaches, and evidence-based practice.

• Chapters written expressly for the book by established scholars committed to learning from the field and making research useful to practitioners in everyday life.

• Rather than a "how-to" guide, the book is a source of information and ideas for use in planning programs, training practitioners, and understanding the perspectives of partners in community collaborations.

• Original case studies provide illustrations of good practice in working with youth to optimize growth and development in varied settings such as the family, school, youth organizations, and workplaces.
• Serves as both a useful reference and as a "state of the art" account of youth development as a field.

The Youth Development Handbook is designed for scholars and researchers in applied developmental science as well as practitioners and policy makers who implement youth development initiatives. The book is also recommended for use in graduate courses on youth development in the fields of Psychology, Human Development & Family Studies, and Education.

Stephen F. Hamilton is Professor of Human Development and Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University. His research and outreach support youth development, especially through 4-H, the youth component of Cooperative Extension. As a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow, he studied Germany′s apprenticeship system as an institution supporting the transition to adulthood of youth without college degrees. His book, Apprenticeship for Adulthood, and the demonstration project he designed and led with Mary Agnes Hamilton helped to guide the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. He has also conducted research and contributed to program development related to service-learning and mentoring. He received his M.A.T. and Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and taught for three years in a Washington, D.C., vocational high school.

Mary Agnes Hamilton is a Senior Research Associate in Human Development at Cornell and Director of the Cornell Youth and Work Program in the Family Life Development Center. Dr. Hamilton taught for four years in public schools in Richmond, VA, and Montgomery County, Maryland. Dr. Hamilton′s primary interests are education and adolescent development. Her research and program development focus on the quality of learning environments in the community, mentoring relationships between non-related adults and youth, and the transition to adulthood. She seeks to advance educational opportunities and challenges for all youth to gain character and competence. She is especially interested in those young people who do not graduate from four-year colleges. She has an M.A.T. from Duke, C.A.T. from Harvard, and Ph.D. from Cornell.