Fragmentation: Is Youth Development a Field?

Working in the field of Youth Development the strongest characteristic of the profession is fragmentation.

Organizations and individual researchers write about the unique aspects of Youth Development and then create programs that continue NCLB-style academic formats or "follow the money" to further marry Youth Development to traditional models of school.

Various voices compete to create systems of credentialing, licensing, or "systematize" the work and expecting the field to "professionalize" according to collegiate models or other professions where compensation and the type of service differ greatly (a lawyer and a youth worker may both work hard, but they don't work the same).

Consultants, trainers, and certificate programs compete and sprout up and use models and frameworks that are often presented prematurely in the rush to take small pilots "to scale" and untested ideas "national."

Funders support work inconsistently and do not make long-term investments so that many Youth Development programs have to re-cast themselves every year or jump from one pilot to another never getting past the start-up stage.

Programs do not see themselves in the same work. Program providers don't identify with each other or collaborate for funding, focus, or message. The "field" of the youth worker has more vulnerabilities than it has assets.

This does not mean that the type of work need be unified into one system. What it may require, however, is for more youth workers to look beyond their population's needs, the mission of their organization, or agenda, and see that the work of Youth Development covers diverse programs, people, and approaches from inner city child care to suburban arts enrichment and outdoor exploration. It is an umbrella that should gather together various good quality people who work with youth to develop their social and emotional well being rather than it is today - fragmented and under threat as each individual organization and program vies with the next for scarce resources. We cannot blame the policy makers for crashing around from school to after-school, from private to public monies, they cannot know the work we do if we do not articulate it well.

Is it time for an Economic Youth Development Summit?

In recent years the Out-of-School field has grown to include diverse programming from urban after-school programs for school age children to theater, arts, and community service for all ages. However, fragmentation of funding, a host of competing forces to standardize diverse programmatic approaches and a push to formalize a work force that has traditionally been permeable and reliant on local talent all threaten the existence of an increasing number of programs that work with children and youth but do so in different ways that the established school system.

This shift - currently compounded by the economic climate - has created a high-level of stress in a field that is also experiencing an identity problem. Recent cuts to state budgets has strained public funding and private foundations are seeing their endowments shrink as more nonprofits turn to them for investments. OST programs are asked to form partnerships that may not honor their particular approach to youth development. They also do not ensure the sustainability of community-based organizations as increasing attention is given to school-based solutions and a "pipeline" mentality to education and learning.

The Out-of-School Time field is increasingly asked to adopt new school-based models as it is increasingly framed against the needs of the school system rather than looking at the potential of using these diverse programs to address social needs that are today and have traditionally been outside the keen of the governmental school system. There is a wider issue of youth development that may need to supersede the uncertain identity of "after-school" and "out-of-school." Many practitioners are looking toward new research on the importance of youth development and a more integrated "whole child" approach but are locked into language that places them in competition with or in a very unequal relationship with the current educational system.

BOSTnet is proposing an Economics of Youth Development Summit to bring together the diverse field as it stands today and look ahead to how these programs and organizations can survive in the future. The field of Youth Development must create dialogue as well as lead to new ways of elevating the work many organizations have developed after a century of practice.

Perhaps the outcome of this could be a stronger platform and an energized support network that honors social-emotional work, informal learning, and community development.