YDS Study Published in the Journal of Youth Development

Congratulations to John Weiss for his work being featured in the Journal of Youth Development! John is NZ’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and leader of the Youth Driven Spaces (YDS) coaching and consulting program. The Journal is a national publication on youth development research and practice and in the most recent issue, they published the article “Maximizing Youth Leadership in Out-of-School Time Programs: Six Best Practices from Youth Driven Spaces”.

Click hear to read the article

The research paper, by John and his four co-authors, highlights the effectiveness of youth-driven practice and youth-adult partnerships in developing leadership skills in out-of-school programs. The research includes five youth-serving agencies that have participated in Neutral Zone’s Youth Driven Spaces initiative.

Neutral Zone is regularly packed with teens because we offer fun programs in arts, music, writing, education, and community leadership — but teens here gain much more than just being at a cool place to hang out. Youth-driven practice and youth-adult partnerships are the cornerstones of our work with teens across programs and projects. Since 2010, YDS has taken Neutral Zone’s model and provided training, coaching, and support to now dozens of youth-serving programs and continues to grow—not only helping NZ continue to develop as a center of excellence but to advance the field of youth development across the region.