POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
YOUNG PEOPLE
IN CHARGE
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YPC Board Members in the Community
Young People in Charge (YPC) was founded on the premise that youth can change the world. YPC's mission is to promote better unity, leadership and community service for the youth of Lancaster County.
YPC operates on the principle that young people bring valuable new leadership skills and energies into the
community when given the opportunity. The Young People in Charge board is comprised of high school students from Lancaster, Buford, and Andrew Jackson High schools.
These board members solicit grant proposals from youth organizations in the community. Each grant must meet certain criteria, and be for the good of the youth of Lancaster County with the maximum award of $500.
After awarding a grant to an organization, the board members then volunteer to help with the project.
The YPC board also participates in community service-learning projects such as the Summer Reading Kick-off, Boo Fun Fest, Promise Neighborhood Clean-up Saturdays, and Give Local Lancaster.
SPARK
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
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SPARK Enrichment Activities
SPARK After School Academic Block
POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPEMNT FRAMEWORK (PYD)
At SPARK, we make after school exciting and impactful by incorporating youth voice and choice,
team building, enrichment opportunities and more.
Each semester we offer a variety of leadership development, team building, and social-emotional learning activities to students enrolled in the SPARK program. These activities provide participants with the opportunities and supports necessary for positive youth development.
SPARK uses evidenced-based approaches and effective strategies to educate youth on how to avoid risks that could lead to adverse outcomes.
SPARK uses a Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework as one of the strategies to help participants build healthy life skills, develop individual leadership capacity, empower youth to make healthy decisions, and teach youth to engage in the community to impact change.
SPARK works in partnership with schools to support the safety, well-being, and positive development of youth. SPARK is currently offered at South Middle School. Registration occurs on a rolling admission until capacity is reached. All South Middle School students are eligible to attend.
KEY COMPONENTS
- Positive Youth Development provides intentional activities designed to expose students to a range of academic, cultural, artistic, and recreational resources directed at teaching pro-social skills, self-regulation, and peer refusal capacity.
- The Teen Outreach Program (TOP) promotes positive adolescent development through curriculum-guided, interactive group discussions, positive adult guidance and support, and community service learning.
- SPARK promotes community service through fidelity requirements of the Teen Outreach Program which includes a minimum of 20 hours of community service, supervised by project staff and partners. This represents a significant opportunity to empower youth as change agents in their own community.
PEERS
MAKING PEACE
Peers Making Peace Training & Activities
Our peer mediation program, Peers Making Peace, provides students with the voluntary, peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts where one or more peers who are not involved act as Mediators. The conflict resolution skills taught in this program
are designed to promote the safety and well-being of Lancaster County schools as well as lower student suspension rates.
Students at target Middle Schools are onboarded and trained by our facilitators through the paxUnitedⓇ Peers Making Peace curriculum - the only national conflict resolution program recognized by the US Department of Education, the Center of Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.