America Has a Youth Engagement Problem

By Edward Dejesus

The cry for more youth program opportunities can be heard clear across America. Each year, advocates point out the growing needs of youth and young adults and the lack of programs and services to meet those needs. I, too, am guilty. My call of foul at the 250,000 federally funded program slots for the 5.4 million out-of-school youth is a staple of my presentations to policymakers across the U.S.

“How can we expect any progress in reducing gang violence and youth unemployment, or expect to quell the dropout rate if we only have enough program slots to serve 3% of the 14-21 year old eligible population!” Many echo my outcry, and I usually continue by addressing the real crux of the problem. “We don’t have a gang problem in the United States; we have a youth opportunity problem!” I have touted this cry from boardrooms in Seattle to the hoods in South Florida, always receiving a response of thunderous applause.

Despite the strong audience affirmation, I still find myself walking away and feeling as though something is missing. Why? Many of us were part of the movement to bring positive youth development to youth workforce programs across the U.S., making sure we serve youth differently than adults, and taking into account their developmental needs, assets, and the different stages of their development. Surely there is no disputing the fact that there is a need for more programs and opportunities for young people to grow into healthy, positive adults. So, what is lacking? Where is the breakdown?

Despite our best efforts at incorporating positive youth development we forgot one thing:
incorporating youth. The sad reality is that many of our youth development and youth workforce programs struggle to get youth in the doors. Yes, I know this is a subject that we do not like to discuss. However, it is a subject that must be raised in the research and policy agenda in order to reach a viable solution. Of the millions of youth who desperately need education and workforce development in their lives, few are turning to the programs and services that can lead to better lives and opportunities. Those that do come often don’t stay.

Now I know a few of you are crying foul. However, it is my experience that those of you who cry foul are able to offer youth $300 or more every two weeks for attending. In fact, engagement has translated to money, at least for some. In this fact lies our advocacy dilemma. Advocating for more money and resources in a system that cannot engage the youth it is intended to serve is a lesson in futility.

School Accountability: What about us?
If the educational system is forced to be more accountable, so should youth development and workforce programs. Let me break it down like a fraction - No Child Left Behind is exposing the incredible achievement gap that currently exists within the United States. The National Governors Association recommendation for states to recalculate dropout rates has exposed a national travesty: 50% of African-American and Latino youth drop out of high school.

The exposure doesn’t stop there however. The Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study reported that only 31% of students who entered community college in 1995-1996 with the intention of earning a degree or certificate had met their goal six years later. For African-American and Latino students the rate is much lower.

As if that weren’t enough of a factor, Congress is trying to rescind 65 million of WIA funds partly because of unspent funds. While there are many excuses for why funds are unspent, the reality is that many programs have no youth to spend them on. It seems that despite the weeding out of those who are not serious, along with those who constantly whine or refuse to work with adjudicated youth, or youth in the foster care system, programs still can’t get it right. Once again, the question hangs out there—why?

Why?
Perhaps the most important program element is engagement. Without effective and consistent engagement efforts, programs can never meet expected outcomes. The primary challenge youth service providers face in implementing effective engagement strategies is to stop blaming engagement difficulties on young people’s deficiencies, but instead recognize that it is the deficiencies of the programs themselves. Building a youth engagement system in much different from incorporating positive youth development principles into program design.

A youth engagement system is a commitment to a set of principles and practices sustained by policy and sufficient resources, dedicated to creating an authentic and culturally competent service delivery system where young people feel valued as stakeholders and are compelled to invest in active and meaningful participation towards mutual goals. In short, we need a youth driven workforce preparation system, not an employer driven one– time and statistics have proven that’s not working!

In order to do this, organizations need to build and strengthen the routes (and in some cases open them) for young people to be fully engaged in the decisions, opportunities and challenges affecting their communities. One of the largest miscalculations that youth employment programs make is to attempt to provide services to the at-risk populations without first developing an intimate understanding of what truly motivates and interests this special group.

In The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives on High School Dropouts, Bill Gates tells us the most reported reason why youth are dropping out of school. They are bored with education! Sounds like something we could have figured out on our own, right? Probably, however that is only part of the story. What Mr. Microsoft failed to tell us is that they are not bored with education; they are just bored with the education and job training we subject them to. Youth are literally handing us the manual to how to help them become successful, but is anyone reading the pages?
Not only is it time to realize that up until this point, the method used to increase youth engagement is not just flawed, it’s broken. If we want to make a change, it is we that must make changes, using their lead as a path to getting it right.

Edward DeJesus is one of the most sought after speakers on the issue of youth engagement and development. For the past 15 years, he has been helping organizations improve student recruitment, retention and engagement. To learn more about Ed, visit http://www.ydrf.com

Why Youth Football Players Quit and How to Avoid it

By Dave Cisar

I was driving with my wife and family on Sunday discussing with my her some of the conversations I had with youth football coaches over the phone this week. In many ways she is much smarter than me and looks at things through perspectives I rarely consider. She astutely recognized that youth football players have no clue if the scheme they are being taught is fundamentally sound, age appropriate or is being taught correctly. In most cases they look up to their coaches because of the position the coach holds and views him as the expert. In the youth football players mind, if they are failing with the scheme and or technique it is because they are not a very good football player and never will be. But the truth is when they fail, it is often because the scheme makes no sense for the age, practice time, coaching expertise and skill level of the player and team. How would they know?

Something like a zone blocking scheme where the youth player has to read the defensive front, make line calls, double team block the first level, come off the block at the exact right time to then go block a moving linebacker is impossible for 95% of youth linemen to do. The youth football player has no idea or perspective that what the coach is asking him to do is impossible at his age, experience level and with his athleticism. He most likely thinks he is not good enough, never will be good enough, won’t have much success in football and he quits. He becomes part of the 70% of all youth players who NEVER go on to play High School football per a Michigan State study. Most kids are going to determine if they feel they can play the game in their first season or two. If they feel they can’t compete, most often they move on to something else, in todays world there are MANY choices.

In all likelihood if the player is playing on a youth football team using something like a zone blocking scheme, his team is losing most of its games. My research has shown teams that consistently lose also have significantly higher drop rates than those teams that are competitive.
Add up the two and you have a recipe for lots of kids not going on to play “at the next level”, the supposed goal of many of the guys using this type of scheme.

Help your youth football players stick with the game by wisely coaching the game. Pick schemes that allow your players to have some success even if they aren’t great athletes. Heck, pick schemes that don’t require great athletes so your teams can succeed and even thrive. Zone blocking and spread offenses are some of the main culprits of getting kids to quit in youth football. If a player can’t taste some individual success and some team success, in most likelihood he won’t be playing the game very long. If this is your team, as a youth football coach you will have failed in performing one of your most important jobs, retaining kids and getting them to fall in love with the game of football.

Put the kids in schemes that anyone can do, like great angle down blocks, wedge blocks, double teams and with a simple and easily to teach blocking rule. Don’t use complex blocking rules that require kids to recognize fronts, make line calls and block players they have no chance of making a block on. Doing so will only frustrate the kids and you and lead to unnecessary turnover on your team. You will have failed in what I consider your main duty.

Everything we suggest in the books and DVDs is time tested and has been successful with a wide variety of youth football teams. Some teams had players, many had very few, some teams had experienced coaches and many had rookie coaches. That is one of the main reasons I coached 5 different teams in the last 6 seasons in different leagues, with 4 different coaching staffs. It didn't matter, it worked with them all.

For 150 free youth football coaching tips please stop here: Youth Football Plays
Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays