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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Barber, Jessica (MA). Think youth opportunity: An ethnographic look into the Youth Opportunity Initiative in Tampa, (Borman), 2002.
Abstract: Youth workforce development is touted as a cure for the current social and economic issues facing poverty-stricken urban areas, such as the Tampa Enterprise Community (EC). This position assumes that the negative social impacts of poverty and long-term economic depression can be alleviated by increasing the "community sense of well-being" by training and educating youth to increase participation in higher-yield economic activities within the workforce. These youth are then expected to bring that benefit into the community as role models and work to strengthen the community through increased interest,. participation and collaboration with community organizations.
The United States Department of Labor has recently begun implementation of their Youth Opportunity Initiative, a five-year education and job placement program targeted at youth ages 14-21 living in areas that have been identified as economically depressed. Each of the 36 cities chosen as sites received grants at the local level intended to foster a community-based youth training program designed for workforce development. As part of the grant process, the agencies responsible for the implementation and daily activities of the YO project agreed to a simultaneous five-year evaluation which included an ethnographic and community oriented component. A local ethnographer was selected in each area who was asked to collect data relating the "community sense of well-being" in an area near the YO center of operations. A framework for the analysis of the ethnographic data was presented that relied on four primary driver dimensions and two outcome dimensions. This framework defined a community's sense of well-being as the interaction between Economic Opportunity, Social Capital Networks, Institutional Capacity and Infrastructure and the Physical and Demographic Characteristics within that community which influence the Attitudes and Behaviors of the residents.
Observational and interview data were collected and analyzed using data matrices and AnSWR qualitative coding to look for connections between the information given by the participants and the broader model of changes implied by the Department of Labor's Youth Opportunity Initiative. Thoughts for further modifications to the program to increase community interaction and youth involvement have also been suggested as possibilities for greater program efficacy based on the data.
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