The Waco Youth Development Project (YDP) is a nonprofit organization in McLennan County, Texas. We use outreach research to advance knowledge about how to empower young people during their transition to adulthood. The YDP includes graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty on the McLennan Community College campus.
Our mission is to share a vision of positive change. We aim to:
Our mission is to share a vision of positive change. We aim to:
- Promote positive youth development and enhance the life chances of all young people;
- Stimulate the dissemination of all articles, books, reports, and other communications related to promoting positive youth development; and
- Prepare students to contribute to the science and practice of positive youth development.
Promoting Positive Youth Development
We provide the Changing Lives Program. Each year, in partnership with local schools and college transition programs, undergraduate psychology students facilitate small mentoring groups for about 100 traditionally underserved youth who will be first in their families to go to college. In working with these youth, our approach is supportive and collaborative, not problem-focused or didactic. Like other youth development programs, we aim to promote positive and healthy development.
Disseminating Knowledge About Positive Youth Development
Our positive youth development research aims to advance the applied developmental science of identity. This is a science with an explicit sense of humanistic values whose objective is the improvement of the human condition and the life chances of every human. Our goal is to connect theoretical models of self and identity to programs and practices to help young people form positive adult identities.
Preparing Students to Contribute to Positive Youth Development
Developmental Interventions for Youth is a two-semester pre-clinical internship that gets college students involved in community outreach. Students work with community partners to implement the Changing Lives Program. They receive training in helping skills, participatory co-learning, and applied developmental science while gaining experience working with underrepresented adolescents in real-world school and community settings.
We provide the Changing Lives Program. Each year, in partnership with local schools and college transition programs, undergraduate psychology students facilitate small mentoring groups for about 100 traditionally underserved youth who will be first in their families to go to college. In working with these youth, our approach is supportive and collaborative, not problem-focused or didactic. Like other youth development programs, we aim to promote positive and healthy development.
Disseminating Knowledge About Positive Youth Development
Our positive youth development research aims to advance the applied developmental science of identity. This is a science with an explicit sense of humanistic values whose objective is the improvement of the human condition and the life chances of every human. Our goal is to connect theoretical models of self and identity to programs and practices to help young people form positive adult identities.
Preparing Students to Contribute to Positive Youth Development
Developmental Interventions for Youth is a two-semester pre-clinical internship that gets college students involved in community outreach. Students work with community partners to implement the Changing Lives Program. They receive training in helping skills, participatory co-learning, and applied developmental science while gaining experience working with underrepresented adolescents in real-world school and community settings.