How Are Leadership Programs Empowering Our Vulnerable Children and Youth? A Scoping Review

Abstract

Globally vulnerable populations are negatively impacted by policy and practice. For vulnerable youth, risks to growth, development, and a lack of participation in decisions about their lives are common. Leadership programs are frequently implemented to address the risks faced by vulnerable youth. This review sought to describe the goals, content, and outcomes of existing youth development programs to better understand if they are meeting the needs of vulnerable youth. A scoping review was conducted using the PRISMA-ScR methodology. Ten electronic databases and grey literature were searched. A total of 89 youth development programs were identified. The goals, content, and outcomes of the programs were thematically analyzed. Four foci emerged, namely, youth, relationship, community, and social justice-focused development. A youth focus was most commonly represented, and the social justice focus was the least represented. Most programs addressed only one focus area. If youth development programs are to provide youth with both the skills to engage with and opportunities to change their circumstances, then all four focus areas need to be included. Secondly, a need for the active involvement of youth in both the planning and implementation of programs was identified. Finally, safeguarding needs to be highlighted in any program working with vulnerable youth.

Changing the Story: The Evaluation of a Leadership Development Programme for Vulnerable and Deaf Youth in South Africa

“…This study was based on the need for programmes for vulnerable youth to be rigorously evaluated, as specified by Bastable et al (2022) and Chowa et al (2023). Furthermore, these reviews highlighted the need for programmes with vulnerable youth to extend beyond the individual to the community and broader society (Bastable et al 2022;Chowa et al 2021Chowa et al , 2023. Based on these results the YADIS-LDP is heading in the right direction, however, further emphasis on broader society is still required.…”

“…Participants in this study were purposively selected according to the requirements of the CTS-LDP for YADIS which specified the inclusion of vulnerable and Deaf youth with in the project. The organisations involved in the YADIS project work with vulnerable youth and have identified youth with disabilities as being in need of support, however, as per the reviews of Bastable et al (2022) and Chowa et al (2023) the validation of programmes for vulnerable youth is an area which has been neglected, hence the organisations felt that it was important to validate the effect of the CTS-LDP on both vulnerable and Deaf youth before its use could be expanded.…”

“…These key compo nents included components relating to the individual, the community and broader soci ety. These key components of programmes were validated by youth leaders from the com munity and organisations who work with vulnerable youth (Bastable et al 2022) as the constructs for use in the formulation of the Q-statements. From each of these key compo nents the researchers produced ten statements (30 total) to form the Q-sample.…”

“…(Chowa et al 2021(Chowa et al , 2023Patton et al 2016;Tripon 2022). For communities in particular, however, recent reviews of programmes aimed at providing such skills to vulnerable youth have highlighted an emphasis on research in high income countries, a lack of inclusion of youth with disabilities, and a focus primarily on the youth themselves with limited engagement with their communities or society at large (Bastable et al 2022;Chowa et al 2021Chowa et al , 2023. In addition, such reviews highlight the challenges in the evaluation of the studies identified, such as a lack of specificity and reporting detail in the evaluation processes (Bastable et al 2022;Chowa et al 2021Chowa et al , 2023.…”

“…One of the programmes identified in the review by Bastable et al (2022) was that called "Changing The Story" (Harvey et al 2021). Based on the review, the organisations involved in the implementation of the Changing the Story-Leadership Development Programme (CTS-LDP) sought to apply robust evaluation to the CTS-LDP in the South African context.…”