Youth in the Middle (YiM)

Youth in the Middle approaches the challenges that schools and youth are facing amid a culture of high stakes accountability while trying to implement a community youth development approach to teaching and learning. Youth in the Middle involves teachers, community-based organizations, administrators, youth, and city and county institutional leaders to develop an effective system-wide approach to support positive youth development (social, emotional, physical, and cognitive) across in-school and out-of-school settings. At the heart of this initiative is the question: How can schools, youth-serving community organizations, and local institutions best work together to promote a shared youth development approach to learning, and provide every child with the opportunities and resources he or she needs to succeed? This question is particularly salient in the current educational climate, in which academic performance is stressed above all else.