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8 ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ “If I Never Came Here I’d Be Irresponsible, Like a Little Kid” After-School Programs as Sites of Development and Identity Construction In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the potential of after-school programs for providing safe and supportive places for youth to learn and grow. Particular attention has been paid to the role of such organizations in the lives of youth living in high-poverty neighborhoods . The most visible manifestation of this interest was endorsed by a real life kids’ action hero, the Terminator himself. Before becoming governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger stewarded California Proposition 49 to victory, promising permanent funding for after-school programs statewide. After-school programs were also part of the initial No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which provided financial support for 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Subsequent federal budgets have decreased funding for that portion of the initiative.1 If we are to press forward with financial support for the efforts of youth organizations, we must have a deeper understanding of what makes these sites successful and how developmental processes occur within them. As I argue throughout this book, such an effort requires an understanding of “If I Never Came Here I’d Be Irresponsible, Like a Little Kid” ❙ 179 the developmental needs of adolescents in context. Environments that do not fit adolescents’ developmental needs can be harmful.2 Furthermore, we must take a positive stance toward youth, considering not only how we can prevent problems but also how we can promote development.3 This goes beyond prevention and intervention. It requires attending to the development and support of the inherent competencies in all youth.4 Researchers and practitioners are increasingly taking a developmental approach to studying youth organizations. Although early work on afterschool programs focused on behavioral outcomes, skill enhancement, and risk prevention, recent work highlights the broader developmental potential of such settings. Two recent reviews suggest that programs do not need to focus solely on academics to achieve positive effects in academic areas.5 These findings support the idea of positive youth development as a holistic concept. This is encouraging. Too often we separate the process of human development from the practice of social policy and programming. For those of us concerned with youth development, this fissure is particularly troubling. Creating successful programs for youth requires fusing development and practice. We must consider the policies we expect to affect young lives in light of the developmental needs of the youth whom we hope to reach. The increasing focus on after-school programs as sites for positive youth development stems from a desire to help improve the life chances of youth growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods. It also reflects an anxiety about youth crime and high-risk behaviors. Much like the media blitz around teen pregnancy in the 1980s, today’s focus on the “3–6 pm risk” is partially driven by genuine concern for the well-being of youth. Yet it is also fueled by recognition of the social costs of juvenile delinquency.6 Mentoring and after-school programs, which offer both supervision and support to youth deemed “at-risk,” are increasingly being touted as a panacea . But much remains unknown about the potential of such programs. It is my contention that after-school programs have promise beyond risk prevention and behavior promotion. Such sites can serve as positive developmental settings that assist youth in negotiating the broader task of adolescence: identity development. Yet to adequately meet the developmental needs of minority, economically disadvantaged adolescents, we must understand how they construct identities and the ways in which they use local contexts and relationships to negotiate this task. The voices 180 ❙ “If I Never Came Here I’d Be Irresponsible, Like a Little Kid” and experiences of the East Side youth provide insight into the ways in which such settings, and the people in them, serve as sites for positive development and self-construction. These youth are actively engaged in constructing identities within the rubrics of gender, race, and class. Too often the contexts that are available to them do not provide optimal support for this task. Adolescents recognize this. After describing the violence he and his peers continually negotiate in his neighborhood, Bob pauses and looks at me: “I’m gonna have problems when I grow up,” he concludes. This is not how a 14-year-old should view his chances for the future. It is incumbent upon us, as a society, to pay attention...

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