Guidelines for Healthy Food and Beverages for Adolescent Health Programs
Through component 2, SRAE projects provide adult-supervised activities that create educational, recreational, or vocational opportunities for youth ages 10-13. These opportunities build on participants' strengths and shape their ideas about and aspirations for the future. Activities should stimulate cognitive, social, physical, and/or emotional growth and provide a context for productive relationship building with adults and peers. The activities provide alternatives to and demonstrate the advantages of postponing sexual activity and promote the development of a skill set that can support a successful transition into healthy young adulthood.
Adult-supervised activities can occur within another after school or youth group program, or as a stand-alone program. Examples of appropriate activities could include:
- Workplace visits or career exploration
- Cultural events and facilities
- Sports and other physical activity
- Performing arts
- Visual arts
- Scientific exploration
- Games that challenge the mind and encourage deep interaction
- Nature-focused outdoor activities
- Service-learning activities
Resources: Program Development
Planning and Recruitment
Toolkit: Youth Program Planning
This part of the Adolescent Development Toolkit provides resources on how adolescents learn, program design, recruitment planning, activities and strategies that can be integrated into programs, and how to identify evidence-based practices and programs.
Resources for Program Planners
Skill Building and Social-Emotional Development
Building Skills for Adulthood
This section of the ACT for Youth website links to a wealth of youth development activities, curricula, and other resources designed to support young people in transitioning to adulthood. Skill-building areas include: healthy development, parent-child communication, relationship skills, healthy life skills, career success, and financial literacy.
Social and Emotional Learning Toolkit
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a student-centered approach that emphasizes building on students' strengths; developing skills through hands-on, experiential learning; giving young people voice in the learning process; and supporting youth through positive relationships with adults over an extended period of time.
Service-Learning
Service-Learning: An Overview
This ACT for Youth article provides an overview of service-learning, including a summary of benefits to youth, and principles to guide the design of service-learning programs.
National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC)
The mission of NYLC is to create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through service-learning. NYLC sponsors an annual conference, publishes research, and offers service-learning curricula.
Resources: Adult Volunteer Screening, Background Checks, and Training
Adult volunteers working with youth should complete an application, have a personal interview, and provide personal and professional references.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services: School-Age Child Care (PDF)
This document details regulations that must be followed by agencies providing care to school-age children. See "414.10 - Child Abuse and Maltreatment" for screening requirements.
Guide to Screening and Background Checks (PDF)
This guide from the U.S. Department of Education Mentoring Program offers an overall framework for screening and specific tools that can be used in the process. There are descriptions of several types of background checks (from criminal history to driving records), and sample forms and worksheets are included in appendices.
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse within Youth-Serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures (PDF)
This CDC guide identifies six key components of child sexual abuse prevention for organizations, including screening and selecting employees and volunteers. Prevention goals and strategies are included for each component.