Engaging Youth as Workers

By Sam Piha

Today, we know that extended learning opportunities offered through afterschool programs for older youth are important to their success. As a result, high school afterschool programs are growing in number across the country. Many of these programs are striving to engage older youth as workers and helpers within the program. We believe that these strategies are well-aligned to the Learning in Afterschool principles in that they offer learning that is active, collaborative, meaningful, geared for mastery and expand horizons.

In Engaging Youth as Workers Within High School Afterschool Programs, we offer guidelines regarding the employment and compensation of youth who are engaged as workers within the program, and share strategies that are currently being used by ASSETs programs to engage high school age youth in this way.