Title: The Albany Approach to Urban Youth Development.
Abstract: This paper describes an approach to urban youth leadership development, the Albany Institutes for Urban Youth Leaders, which validates urban students' educational aspirations and fosters identification with academic and prosocial concerns. The program helps strengthen relationships between students' promotive characteristics and their involvement in school and community activities. Negative stereotypes abound in the descriptions of urban youths in the professional and public press. Urban students sometimes even find that their positive characteristics, such as high educational aspirations, are seen as at-risk characteristics because they are incongruent with negative stereotypes. This situation may contribute to the gap between educational aspirations and achievement among urban students of color. The Albany Institutes provide experiences that confirm the promotive characteristics of urban youth and their families and treat them as if they are gifted and talented. The curriculum and themes for each of the Institutes are the result of extensive community involvement. The Institutes themselves offer opportunities for students to participate in democratic decision making processes that promote their social responsibilities and enhance cognitive and moral development. The Institutes also offer prosocial peer group experiences. Evaluations of the Institutes indicate that students especially appreciate the teambuilding experiences and their relationships with mentors. (Contains 34 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. arb-a4/7/ Edacatton/ opo-rts/ Sp ri,n4g, 2000 Schoo l. o f Ectaoctuo-ni ni/varsit-y at,4 lbany 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. EAR? Copy AVAMAIELS The Albany Approach Page 1 [Running Head: The Albany Approach] The Albany Approach to Urban Youth Development Donald Biggs School of Education University at Albany Albany, NY Robert Colesante Department of Education Siena College Loudonville, NY Paper Presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference held at New Orleans, Louisiana. April, 2000.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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