Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Teen Leaders from Broome County recently presented a workshop titled "R U RDY 2 get 2gether?” at the Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Conference in Albany. The CITY Teen Leaders spoke about Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Signature Program, Youth Community Action (YCA), and described the process they use for deciding on projects they undertake to improve their community. The CITY Leaders ended their workshop with a panel question and answer session and soon realized that there were many youth-serving programs throughout New York interested in the CITY Project approach.
ACT for Youth is an innovative youth development initiative that promotes social change to help young people thrive. Now in its eighth year, the ACT for Youth Center of Excellence at Cornell University connects positive youth development research to practice, providing technical support to twelve ACT for Youth Collaborations for Community Change as well as to youth-serving programs across New York State.
The CITY Project, a project in the Department of Human Development, uses one of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Signature Programs, Youth Community Action (YCA) as a model for promoting civic engagement, workforce preparation, and asset development among youth (13-18 years old) in New York State’s Children, Youth and Families At Risk (CYFAR) Project. The CITY Project was designated as a 2007 Successful Urban 4-H Program by the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents (NAE4-HA) Urban 4-H Programs Task Force and is a National 4-H Headquarters Program of Distinction. Programs of Distinction reflect the high quality of 4-H youth development programs occurring in communities across the U.S. The Program of Distinction designation is coordinated through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).
For Further Information
ACT for Youth website: http://www.actforyouth.net/
CITY Project website: http://nys4h.cce.cornell.edu/city/