Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Background; (3) Overview of Research on Disconnected Youth: Methodology and Number of Disconnected Youth; Other Characteristics; Reasons Associated with Disconnection; (4) Analysis of Disconnected Youth: (a) Overview; Limitations; (b) Findings: Reasons Reported for Youth Not Being in School or Working; Characteristics of Disconnected Youth; Characteristics of Parents Living with Disconnected Youth; Trends Over Time; (5) Discussion: Overview; Poverty, Family Living Arrangements, and Parental Characteristics; Implications for Policy. Charts and tables.

How do young people get by in hard times and hard places? Have they become a 'lost generation' disconnected from society's mainstream? Do popular ideas about social exclusion or a welfare dependent underclass really connect with the lived experiences of the so-called 'disaffected', 'disengaged' and 'difficult-to-reach'? Based on close-up research with young men and women from localities suffering social exclusion in extreme form, Disconnected Youth? will appeal to all those who are interested in understanding and tackling the problems of growing up in Britain's poor neighbourhoods.

Cities, Counties, Kids, and Families outlines a model for developing strategic policy for responding to children and family issues in local governments. It also discusses fifteen strategic roles that local government can play-most of which do not require direct funding, but depends upon the scarce resource of leadership. The book describes policy and analytical tools used by cities and counties, and makes a case for using these tools more strategically. It calls for strategic policy to respond to the four critical forces affecting children and family policy: families; race and culture; communities and neighborhoods; and regionalism. Finally, the book reviews policy in four critical areas affecting local governments: education and school readiness; substance abuse; youth development; and family support programs. It concludes with predictions of issues that will affect cities and counties in the future.

This report contains - for the United States - a survey of the main barriers to employment for young people, an assessment of the adequacy and effectiveness of existing measures to improve the transition from school-to-work, as well as a set of policy recommendations for further action.

MOVING THE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT MESSAGE: TURNING A VAGUE IDEA INTO A MORAL IMPERATIVE Peter L. Benson and Karen Pittman THE CONTAGION OF AN IDEA In the past fifteen years, countless programs, agencies, funding initiatives, profes sionals, and volunteers have embraced the term "youth development. " Linked more by shared passion than by formal membership or credentials, these people and places have contributed to a wave of energy and activity not unlike that of a social movement, with a multitude of people "on the ground" connecting to a set of ideas that give sustenance, support, and value to increasingly innovative efforts to build competent, successful, and healthy youth. There are several particularly interesting dimensions to this movement. First, the youth development idea has the potential to draw people and organizations to gether across many sectors. Conferences and initiatives using youth development language attract increasingly eclectic audiences, bringing together national youth organizations, schools, city, county, and state agencies, police and juvenile jus tice workers, clergy, and committed citizens. Perhaps embedded in the youth de velopment idea is a philosophy or a "way" that has created an intellectual and/or spiritual home for actors across many settings. However this happens, it is clear that one of the powerful social consequences of the youth development idea is a connecting of the dots-the weaving within and across city, county, state, and of a tapestry of new relationships.

This concluding report of the Jobs for Youth series analyses the situation of youth employment and unemployment in the context of the jobs crisis and identifies successful policy measures in OECD countries as well as structural reforms in education and in the labour market that can help.

The Cultural Matrix seeks to unravel an American paradox: the socioeconomic crisis and social isolation of disadvantaged black youth, on the one hand, and their extraordinary integration and prominence in popular culture on the other. This interdisciplinary work explains how a complex matrix of cultures influences black youth.

Surveys the history of youth unemployment and identifies key issues underlying the current crisis. The Youth Unemployment Crisis: A Reference Handbook examines the recent phenomenon in the United States wherein young workers ages 16 to 24 are unemployed or disconnected from the labor force at disproportionate rates. It describes in detail what led to the crisis, who it affects, and what can be and is being done about it. The book opens with a chapter that addresses the nature and scope of the crisis, which is followed by a discussion of the inherent problems, controversies, and possible solutions. It includes essays from a diverse range of contributors, providing useful perspectives to round out the author's expertise, as well as a collection of data and documents; an overview of important people, organizations, and resources relating to the crisis; a chronology listing important events in the youth unemployment timeline; and a glossary of key terms.