Youth As Resources (YAR) Evaluation
Under a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Prevention Research Center conducted an evaluation of a local YAR program. The YAR program is a youth-based program designed to build protective factors among at risk youth through the provision of small grants to carry out volunteer projects to impact the youth and community. The youth involved in YAR are responsible for creating and conducting community service projects, partnering with adults on local YAR boards to make policy decisions, and evaluating project proposals of peers who are recipients of grant funds. The YAR initiative, developed by the National Crime Prevention Council in 1987, funds local programs throughout the United States and in three foreign countries. The current YAR in Dauphin County is an expansion of a previous program developed and operated by the Urban League of Metropolitan Harrisburg, in 1997. Dr. Carla Walls, under the auspices of the Prevention Research Center's Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development, conducted a pre/post-test assessment of youth involved in Dauphin County's YAR program. An evaluation survey was administered to approximately 100 youth, 50 across two grant cycles, to assess changes in youth attitudes, values, behavior and perceptions about community involvement after completion of their proposed projects.