Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
FAMILY LIFE DEVELOPMENT CENTER
Non Technical Summary
Brain drain and loss of the young adult population threaten rural areas in NYS and elsewhere, as does the decision of youth who remain in their communities to drop out of high school or not to pursue post-secondary education. Youth who have natural mentors (i.e., not in a mentoring program) are more likely to enter higher education; however, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have mentors. The development of natural mentoring relationships can be fostered by having youth and adults work together toward common goals. Secondary school youth and adults in three rural communities will engage in participatory action research. The Community Mobilization for Mentoring Youth project will encourage natural mentoring and increase opportunities for more youth to contribute to their communities' vitality and to reflect on and pursue their personal goals, especially via post-secondary education or training. Activities during the three phases of the project enable youth to create Life Stories of adults, develop Community Action Plans to create more opportunities for youth-adult engagement, and work in Community Opportunities with adults in service learning teams, in jobs, and in internships. These opportunities will promote individual youth development (especially connectedness to adults, school and community; school success; civic engagement; planfulness; and agency). This project will simultaneously develop and test a program that can be disseminated through Extension, conduct evaluation research on the program itself, and conduct basic research on how natural mentoring relationships form and foster youth development, and how to mobilize communities. We propose that youth are more likely to make and follow rewarding life plans, succeed in secondary school, and engage in their communities when they have opportunities to work alongside adults to learn about, make plans, and act to improve their communities. Such goal-directed activities are optimal for fostering natural mentoring relationships. The project addresses all five of New York State's Applied Research and Extension priorities. It is most directly related to Youth Development (especially #2, Youth Community Action/Citizenship, and #4, Positive Youth Development and Life Skill Development), and Community and Economic Vitality priorities, notably, Community-based decision making that includes an engaged and educated citizenry representative of the community. By building human resources in rural communities it also addresses Agriculture and Food Systems Sustainability. In addition, the project responds to and builds on priorities for rural communities in the state arising from a comprehensive New York State Rural Vision Project conducted by Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute, notably the consensus that schools are central institutions in rural communities and have essential contributions to make to all economic and community development initiatives.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1. Approximately 30 youth, teachers, and other adults from three communities will learn how to produce life stories annually in Phase 1 (first year for each Cohort; new cohort starts each of 3 years). Objective 2. In each community, 10-20 students will produce life stories annually in Phase 1. Objective 3. Through the Adult Life Stories and other activities (in next 2 years), youth will learn how adults have made satisfying lives in their communities and who mentored them when they were young. Objective 4. In Phase 2, (year 2 for each Cohort), students and adults will jointly plan community actions to improve supports and opportunities for youth. Objective 5. In Phase 3, (year 3 for Cohort 1) youth and adults will work together to implement the action steps to increase youth opportunities for: supportive relationships (connectedness to adults, school and community), efficacy and mattering (youth voice, youth leadership, civic engagement), and skill building (goal-directed activities, civic competence). Objective 6. Through participation in project activities (during each Phase), adults in the communities will get to know young people outside their families. Some will become natural mentors. Objective 7. Schools' dropout rates will decrease as participants gain connectedness to school and planfulness. Objective 8. The investigators will gain understanding of the formation and functioning of natural mentoring relationships and will publish their findings. Timeline for Production of Deliverables October 2008: Workshop introduction to the Life Stories Curriculum, and continuing testing and development during the three years, placed on website. 2009 and after: Articles submitted for publication 2009 and after: Conference Presentations August 2009 continuing: Life Story Products created by youth (e.g., pod casts, newsletter features, journal, artistic creation, video), placed on websites. August 2010 continuing: Compendium of Community Action Planning Materials, placed on website. August 2011 continuing: Case Studies of Exemplary Community Opportunities (e.g., internships, youth jobs, team service projects), placed on website. September 201: Final Report 2011 - 2013: Website guides, Publications (articles)
Project Methods
Secondary school youth and adults in three rural communities will be trained and engage in participatory action research. A new cohort will begin Phase 1, Life Stories, at the start of each of the three years. Phase 2, Community Action Plans, begins approximately at the start of their second year in the project. In the third year or earlier, Cohort 1 will begin Phase 3, Community Opportunities. The proposed project is integrated to generate new knowledge by creating, monitoring, refining, and assessing an intervention that includes education and community development. As much as possible, participants will both conduct the research and interpret the findings, and re-shape the methods and the activities. Timely reports of findings will inform participants and guide next steps. This formative evaluation will also be a kind of Participatory Action Research, initiated by the investigators and on occasion by the local participants. A one-day workshop at Cornell will introduce community teams to the Life Stories Curriculum. Teachers will train students to conduct, analyze and create products from interviews of adults in their community, with consultation available from the Cornell team. Project funds will provide digital cameras, digital recorders, digital transcribers, and camcorders to each school for data collection and processing. Youth will create story products, e.g., a web page, video, pod cast, newsletter, or an article for their local newspaper. Students will reflect on what they have learned from the stories: about adults, education, mentoring, life planning, and their community. During Phase 2, Community Action Plans, youth will assess the community supports and opportunities they need to achieve their goals. A Town Meeting will explore recommendations for increasing Community Opportunities, Phase 3 for youth to work with adults in team service learning projects, internships, and jobs. At Cornell summer institutes youth and adults will share progress and develop new strategies. Annual focus groups will build on reflections from the activities, and help youth map out their dreams for the future, and identify supports and opportunities they need to reach them. The Cornell team will interview 10 youth participants in each community at the end of each school year. Youth will also be asked about their individual experiences to better understand connectedness, planfulness, and civic engagement. Story-telling methods will be used to elicit thick description and reflection on key incidents identified by youth. School success will be indicated by school records of attendance, course credits and grades, and scores on standardized tests. Annual focus groups and interviews, and continuous ethnographic observations will be coded using frameworks and systems developed by the investigators and entered Atlas-ti. Youth development outcomes of interest are: connectedness to school, adults, and the community; planfulness (career information, future goals, pathway, and aligned ambitions); and civic engagement (volunteerism, commitment, future service). Youth sense of purpose and agency will be analyzed.