Summer Youth Engagement: Preliminary Outcomes From the New York State Workforce Development Study

Abstract: The goal of engaging high-risk youth in pro-social activities is to reduce involvement in the criminal justice system and create experiences that increase the youth's chance of success in education and employment in the future. Each summer in New York State, hundreds of youth transitioning out of the juvenile justice system and back into the community are engaged in employment, education, recreation, or community service activities. The current study looks at the Summer Youth Engagement Program in New York State (NYSYEP). NYSYEP attempts to engage youth in a variety of pro-social activities including employment, both government subsidized and unsubsidized within the community; education programs; organized recreation programs; and, volunteer work or community service. The goal of NYSYEP is to keep youth from becoming involved in the criminal justice system and to integrate them back into the community under the supervision of an aftercare worker. The hypothesis for the current pilot study was that youth who were engaged in pro-social activities would be less likely to recidivate or be rearrested than youth who were not engaged over the ten week study period. The study also sought to explore whether youth engagement varied based on geographic location, race, age, and admission type.

Method: A Microsoft Access on-line data collection tool was developed to collect data including demographic and program engagement information on 426 youth from 13 Community Multi-Service Offices (CMSOs). This data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics, a Tobit model, and a logistic regression to find the relationship between demographic factors and engagement, and engagement and revocation.

Results: Data were collected on 426 youth, 328 of whom were male, and 98 of whom were female, ranging in age from 13 to 21 years with a mean age of 16 years. The majority of the youth were identified as Black (n=292), followed by White (n=79) and multiple races (n=23). The majority of the youth were identified as being non-Hispanic or Latino (n=265). A significant relationship between the number of hours youth rngaged and CMSO location was found at the .05 level. For each one hour increase in the number of hours engaged by an individual youth throughout the summer program, the odds of being revoked or arrested are decreased by a factor of .98 (B=-.021; p=.004); or, for each one hour increase in the number of hours engaged, the odds of being revoked or arrested decreases by 2%. For each one year increase in age, the odds of being revoked or arrested are decreased by a factor of .79 (B=-.236; p=.038); or, for each one year increase in age, the odds of being revoked or arrested decreases by 21%.

Implications: The results of this study suggest that engaging at risk youth in pro-social activities during the summer during their transition out of the juvenile justice system reduces their risk for revocation and re-entry into the system. The authors share lessons learned from creating and implementing a statewide data collection system, and explore directions for future research in this area.