Book Description

Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a Western concept of youth engagement that highlights young people's strengths and emphasizes the positive contributions they can make towards their developments and communities when they experience positive developments. Emerging in the 1990s, the novel concept shifts the negative and preventive narrative often associated with adolescents and young people and challenges youth development scholars and practitioners to view them as individuals with potential and the leaders of the future. To assist young people in experiencing positive development, the PYD concept states that caring adults (i.e., family members, educators, mentors) must provide enabling environments where they develop their assets and agencies (i.e., competence, confidence, connection, character, and compassion. Young people's assets are the strengths or the innate or acquired skills they develop throughout their developmental stages. Their agencies are their perceptions of themselves and their abilities to use their assets to make decisions and achieve their desired life goals. Many youth organizations in the U.S. and globally have adopted the PYD concept to inform their programs and activities. An example of a PYD-informed youth organization is 4-H. Established in 1902, 4-H is America's largest PYD organization. Its mission is to equip all young people with the expertise and abilities to become impactful members who usher in change within their communities. Over the years, 4-H has expanded its programming efforts to many countries across the globe, including in Africa. Through preliminary fact-checking, I discovered that 4-H programming in Ghana and Liberia is still active. Over the years, scholars have promoted PYD as a one-size-fits-all concept that educators and youth program leaders can leverage to assist young people from all ethnic and racial backgrounds to experience positive development. However, a shortage of literature exists that highlights how youth development professionals and educators have leveraged to assist ethnic and racial youth in the U.S. and the Global South. Current empirical research and programming surrounding PYD have primarily been conducted with youth residing in rural and suburban areas. They often take advantage of youth development resources and opportunities that are usually easily accessible. However, ethnic and racially diverse youth in the U.S. who reside in historically marginalized communities often don't have access to quality PYD-informed opportunities or resources. Youth development scholars and practitioners overlook them and are not usually included in mainstream PYD-informed research studies. Additionally, young people in the global south, especially African youth, are also excluded from Western studies, and Western scholars aren't aware of the existence of PYD programming in Africa. These factors mentioned above contribute to the absence of PYD literature surrounding ethnic and diverse youth in the U.S. and African countries. Using a qualitative case research design, this study sheds light on how 4-H Ghana and Liberia have implemented the PYD concept to help their youth participants experience positive development. As such, this study explores the specific programming efforts 4-H Ghana and Liberia have developed to support their youth participants with their PYD assets and agencies, highlights the benefits of PYD programming for African youth and the challenges both 4-H country programs encounter while implementing PYD within their cultural context. By interviewing 4-H Ghana, Liberia, and selected partner leaders and reviewing existing literature on both organizations, results indicate that the PYD development assets inform a School-Based Agriculture Education (SBAE). The 5C framework stood out as the foundation on which 4-H Ghana and Liberia's activities and projects are planned and organized. Through their activities, 4-H Ghana has impacted the lives of over 60,000 Ghanaian youth, 20,000 club advisors, and up to 800 4-H clubs located in 6 regions in Ghana today. In Liberia, there are currently more than 100 plus clubs located in seven counties throughout the country, servicing more than 4000 youth participants, club advisors, Despite their successes, 4-H Ghana and Liberia face many challenges today, including lack of funding, consistent support from their respective national governments and the U.S. National 4-H Council, and empirical data that demonstrate the impact their programming efforts have on their youth participants. Moving forward, a thorough summative evaluation of 4-Ghana and Liberia efforts will generate helpful information that can be leveraged to highlight its success stories to national and international stakeholders and attract funding sources.