Promotion of Healthy Adolescent Development
Download Letter of Interest Instructions in PDF format here.
Adolescence is one of the most exciting and complex transitions in the human life span. It is a unique period of development, given the large number of changes that occur in multiple domains.a Moving from childhood to adulthood during the second decade of life involves an intensity of growth and development surpassed only by infancy. It is a time of self-discovery, budding independence, and expanding horizons.b Beginning at about 10 through the early twenties, young people undergo the physical changes of puberty, develop more sophisticated ways of thinking, and acquire the psychosocial skills needed for adulthood.
Understanding these developmental transitions can enhance youth-serving organizations’ ability to appreciate adolescent concerns and develop more effective intervention strategies.
Extensive work and
research in the field of adolescent health over the past 30 years provides a
wealth of information about strategies that can effectively support the
health and well being of youth. Analyzing and applying “lessons learned”
from this research can assist in making informed decisions about those
strategies that most likely have a positive effect on the health of
adolescents.
The Foundation advocates research-based program designs and will look most favorably upon those programs that have a strong research foundation.
What Is Research-Based?
For more information on research-based programs, click here.
Four types of strategies have been shown to effectively support the
health and well being of adolescents.c
1. Decreasing the Risk Factors that contribute to risky behaviors and poor health outcomes.
2. Increasing the Protective Factors that contribute to resiliency and healthy outcomes.
3. Providing Opportunities for young people to successfully meet the developmental needs of adolescence.
4. Building Healthy Communities and Schools that support and nurture adolescents.
Characteristics of effective adolescent health strategies and programs
These characteristics can directly impact adolescents and their families and be the guiding research-based principles for building systems to support healthy youth and young adults.
1. Adolescents are viewed as resources to be nurtured and supported, not problems to be fixed.
2. Strategies are integrated and coordinated.
· There is a diversity of strategies that focus not only on adolescents, but also on their social environment including families, peers, schools, and communities.
· A combination of prevention, health promotion and healthy youth development strategies are used.
3. Youth are involved and engaged as active partners in the design, implementation and evaluation of strategies.
4. There is a good fit between strategies and the adolescents on whom they focus.
· The strategies are responsive to cultural, ethnic and other forms of diversity.
· They are developmentally appropriate.
5. The people involved understand adolescent health and well being.
6. There is a focus on building and strengthening relationships.
· The strategy focus on strengthening families. Teens who have warm, involved, trusting relationships with their parents are more likely to do well in school, have better social skills and have lower rates of risky sexual behaviors than their peers.
· The strategy purposely focuses on building supportive adult-youth relationships.
7. Young people are supported to make successful transitions.
· They help youth develop basic skills.
· They help young people find and become involved in meaningful roles in their communities.
· They strengthen the social supports available to adolescents and their families.
8. They provide an array of opportunities for young people so that risk behaviors are not the desirable option open to youth.
Mentoringd
As a strategy for helping young people succeed in life, mentoring works. It helps give young people the confidence, resources, and skills they need to reach their potential.
But like any youth-development strategy,
mentoring works best when measures are taken to ensure quality and
effectiveness. The risks and improvements to the young person are
proportional to how long the relationship endures. The longer a relationship
lasts, usually the closer the bond and the greater benefit to the youth.
Characteristics of Successful
Programse
Program Recommendations:
Utilizing the strategies and characteristics listed above, the foundation seeks projects that endeavor to:
Reduce teen pregnancy;
Prevent pre-adolescent and adolescent substance abuse (including alcohol, the use of illicit drugs and smoking). Note: Based upon the substantial infrastructure that has developed under the Youth First Inc. program, the foundation requires any organization (church, faith-based or secular) wishing to conduct youth substance abuse prevention activities, to make contact with Youth First, Inc. prior to developing a letter of interest. Youth First is the leading provider of a research-based prevention curriculum in the area. Any agency that intends to collaborate with Youth First, Inc. will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Youth First, Inc., in addition to a signing a grant agreement with the Foundation.
Increase student achievement, high school graduation rates, and overall educational attainment;
This year, there is a
Microsoft Word on-line template that you may download and
utilize in the development of your Letter of Interest. ALL LETTERS OF
INTEREST SUBMITTED VIA E-MAIL MUST USE THIS TEMPLATE.
Please note that the template requires Microsoft Word.
Download Letter of Interest Cover Page and Instructions
(rename the file and save
it to your hard drive)
Additional Links and Resources:
The Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (May
1998), Transitions During Adolescence. Healthy Adolescent Development: A Guide For Youth
Serving Programs, , pp. 5-6.
http://www.jhsph.edu/adolescenthealth/Products/Publications/Other%20Publications/HAD.pdf
a) Crockett LJ and Crouter AC. Pathways through adolescence: an overview. In Pathways
b) Through Adolescence: Individual Development in Relation to Social Contexts. Crockett LJ and Crouter AC. (Eds.) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1993, Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century. Abridged Version. Carnegie Corporation of New York. 1996.
c) Being, Belonging, Becoming: Minnesota's Adolescent Health Action Plan, MDH Adolescent Health Gateway, http://health.state.mn.us/youth/bbb/actionsteps.html.
d) Issue Briefing: Adolescent Mentoring, Study of High School Restructuring, Houston Schools for a New Society Evaluation, The University of Texas Dept. of Educational Administration, http://www.edb.utexas.edu/hsns/HSNSbrief3.pdf