# Presentation: 316687

## Frames, Frameworks, & Foundations in Youth Development Outreach

- CYFAR Preconference
- 2007

- Cathann A. Kress
- Director, National 4-H Headquarters

## Meaning Making

- Explore “Frames” for understanding youth;
- Explore Frameworks related to youth development and how we use them;
- Consider Extension’s role in assisting others to use frameworks in productive ways

## Making Information Make Sense

- Conservative estimates show information is doubling every three years;
- That’s twice as much information every 1,100 days.
- In that time, the amount of information you’ll need to ignore, organize, translate, communicate, and build into solutions will double.
- Our biggest limitation is no longer our imagination.  It is our ability to order, make sense of, and connect everything demanding our attention- how we create clarity.

## HOW WE COMMUNICATE MATTERS

- As a result, how we share and create knowledge is often more important than what we teach; rather than modeling conformity, we must encourage action on behalf of vision and challenge others to engage in critical thinking, while at the same time offering them the tools with which to do so.

## What are Frames?

- According to The Frameworks Institute, frames refer to the construct of a communication — its language, visuals and messengers — and the way it signals to the viewer how to interpret and classify new information.

## WHAT IS A FRAMEWORK?

- A framework is simply a way to organize what is known in an area in order to make it easier for people to use that knowledge effectively.
- Makes knowledge easier to use -

## A framework can be considered as the processes and technologies used to solve a complex issue. 

It is the skeleton upon which various objects are integrated for a given solution.

- It is the skeleton upon which various objects are integrated for a given solution.

## CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORKS

- Purpose
- Core Elements
- Critical Relationships
- Underlying Philosophy
- Intended Audience

## PURPOSE

- Some are designed to stimulate research (theories)
- Some are designed to communicate to a wide audience
- Some are designed to summarize a whole body of literature
- Some are designed to guide action
- Knowing the intended purpose behind a framework
- helps to check its alignment with your intended use.
*Frameworks arise not from data so much as *_*purpose*_*.*

**Notes:**
Some are designed to communicate to a wide audience
America's Promise
Some are designed to summarize a whole body of literature
Risk & Protective Factors
Some are designed to guide action

## CORE ELEMENTS

- Frameworks "boil down" what is known
- into simple core elements which capture
- the essence and are helpful to the purpose
- the framework is trying to accomplish.
- Many frameworks use the same research and label core elements differently - this does not necessarily mean they disagree or are incompatible.
- Understanding the core elements of a framework are critical to its effective use.

## CRITICAL RELATIONSHIPS

- In addition to core elements, frameworks describe how elements are related in critical ways to each other or to other concepts
- Without an understanding of the relationships a framework posits, it is unlikely to be very powerful.
- Sometimes these relationships are more implied than stated.

## UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY

- Often less visible but still important to a framework is an underlying way of thinking about the issue which frames the language used.
*   **Deficit models, for example, talk about risk and prevention while strength-based models emphasize development and growth.*

## INTENDED AUDIENCE

- For whom has the framework been developed?
- Whose agenda do they represent?
- One of the major problems in using frameworks is that they work differentially well with different audiences.

## What We Know

- Research has confirmed short- and long-term positive effects of quality youth development programs.
- Youth participants in structured developmental programs:
- Have better school attendance, better grades, more positive attitudes towards school, and higher aspirations for the future
- More likely to trust their parents, settle in stable relationships, be employed, report being happy with their lives, and be active in their communities.

## However...

- Policies and funding are inadequate
- Public understanding is limited
*These two issues are fundamentally linked to one another.*

## Additionally...

- Within the field, there is confusion about the various frameworks and how they relate

## Approaches to Youth Development 

- Focus:  Risks & Risk Factors

- Focus:  Skills & Knowledge

- Focus: Developmental Needs

- Target:  Social Norms & Communities

- Target:  Individual Learners

- Target:  Opportunities for Youth

- Goal:  Eliminate or Reduce Problems

- Goal: Competency in knowledge or skill

- Goal:  Maturity

**Notes:**
Over the years, our 4-H Educators have used many approaches in their work with youth.  Understanding these approaches and how they differ is critical in our effectiveness.

Prevention
Education
Youth Development

## Understanding the Different Approaches

- Developed by Cathann A. Kress, Ph.D.

- EDUCATION

- YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

## The Adolescent Timeline

- 10    11   12    13    14   15    16     17    18    19    20    21   22    23   24   25

- 		 Age at which financial independence is reached.

- Prepared by Cathann A. Kress, Ph.D., National 4-H Headquarters, CSREES, USDA.  For more information, contact your county extension office.

- Puberty        (physical maturity).

- Cognitive (thinking) maturity, when youth can handle abstract concepts.

- Social maturity, when youth is able to manage emotions and relationships consistently.

- 		 Age at which reasoning centers in brain reach maturity.

## Slide 20

## Content/Context in Youth Outreach

- Belonging
- Mastery
- Independence
- Generosity

- CONTENT

- School Enrichment

- High Content                  High Content                   High Context
- Low Context                   High Context                   Low Content

- Developed by Cathann A. Kress, National 4-H Headquarters, CSREES, USDA

**Notes:**
Over the years, our 4-H Educators have used many approaches in their work with youth.  Understanding these approaches and how they differ is critical in our effectiveness.

Prevention
Education
Youth Development

## Content/Context and Life Skills 

- Belonging
- Mastery
- Independence
- Generosity

- CONTENT

- High Content                  High Content                   High Context
- Low Context                   High Context                   Low Content

- Developed by Cathann A. Kress, National 4-H Headquarters, CSREES, USDA

- Life Skills

**Notes:**
Over the years, our 4-H Educators have used many approaches in their work with youth.  Understanding these approaches and how they differ is critical in our effectiveness.

Prevention
Education
Youth Development

## Analogy for Youth Development

- Dale Blyth’s Analogy

## A few frameworks...

- The 5 C’s
- Search Institute’s 40 Assets
- Circle of Courage
- Brain Architecture
- 4-H Life Skills Wheel
- America’s Promise

## YOUR FRAMEWORKS

- Consider a framework you regularly use in your work:
- What is the purpose of the framework?
- What are its core elements?
- What are the critical relationships it explains?
- What is the underlying philosophy?
- Who is the intended audience?

## Slide 26

## Framing “Youth” as a concept

- To make meaning out of the complex world, we all use mental shortcuts or frames.
- How might that impact how citizens view:
- 	who they feel is responsible for youth?
- 	what policies they might support?
- 	amounts of funding they might allocate?

## The “Pictures in our Heads”

- What pictures do members of our society have about youth?

## Frameworks and Youth Development

- What do we know?

**Notes:**
Media Depictions of Teens: An Example
Adolescents could learn about media literacy by examining media depictions of young people. Thus, a central question for them to answer would be, "How do the media depict young people?" At least two recent studies have examined that question and provided an answer. In the United States , the studies found, teens are frequently depicted as "kids in crisis." They are seen primarily as problems to be solved or at risk for a host of self-destructive behaviors. (See In Between the Lines: How the New York Times Frames Youth (2000) and Off Balance: Youth, Race and Crime in the News (2001)). 
The impact of media messages about kids in crisis is summarized in Fateful Choices , a report from the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development published in 1992. "The state of adolescent health in America has reached crisis proportions," the authors wrote. "Large numbers of ten-to-fifteen year olds suffer from depression that may lead to suicide; they jeopardize their future by abusing illegal drugs and alcohol, and by smoking; they engage in premature, unprotected sexual activity; they are victims or perpetrators of violence....By age 15, about a quarter of all young adolescents are engaged in behaviors that are harmful to themselves and others" (p. 21). 
Does the description reflect the majority of young people? According to the Carnegie report, only 25% of young people in the United States could accurately be described as "in crisis." Media literacy, then, would raise the following questions about the media's depiction of young people: What about the other 75%? Where are their stories being told? Why are the news and entertainment media focused on young people in trouble? How does the skewed depiction of "kids in crisis" shape teens' perceptions of themselves? How does it shape policies implemented by adults? 
In a subsequent report, the Carnegie Council espoused media literacy as an effective tool for helping teens detect and reject the undesirable models of themselves they so often see in the media. Such knowledge "may help counter the development of social or peer norms that reinforce and maintain unhealthy behaviors," the group said (p. 118).

## Public Conceptual Frames

- A decade of research in the social and cognitive sciences strongly suggests that to effectively communicate persuasively about social issues requires an understanding of the conceptual frames ordinary citizens bring to any given policy discussion.

- Lochner, A. & Nall Bales, S. (Winter 2006) Framing youth issues for public support.  In New Directions for Youth Development, 112, Wiley Periodicals.

## Spin Doctors

- The media creates frameworks about youth
- Fact-based or Frame-based?

## Types of Frames

- Episodic
- Thematic

- Lochner, A. & Nall Bales, S. (Winter 2006) Framing youth issues for public support.  In New Directions for Youth Development, 112, Wiley Periodicals.

## CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING A FRAMEWORK

- To what extent is it's _purpose_ consistent with your intended use?
- To what extent does the framework have _credibility_ overall but especially with your intended audience?
- To what extent is the framework _based on solid research_ that is relevant to your intended use?
- To what extent is the _philosophy_ behind the framework consistent with the philosophy of the work you are doing?
- To what extent will the framework likely lead to increased _understanding_ or desired _actions_?
- To what extent can the framework guide _accountability_ efforts?  Is there a set of assessment tools one can use?

## CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING A FRAMEWORK

- To what extent does the framework have _communication tools_ that can help you accomplish your goals?  (e.g., handouts, newsletters)
- To what extent do key _partners_ in your effort already know the framework or use a competing framework?
- To what extent does the framework help you _marshal resources_ needed for success?
- To what extent does the framework speak clearly to your _intended audience_?
- To what extent can this framework be _bridged/connected_ to other frameworks already in use?
- To what extent, and in what ways, does the framework make _your work_ easier or harder?  What will you need to do to make it work?

## FRAMES TO BUILD SUPPORT

**Private benefits** accrue to program participants.
**Public benefits** accrue to the rest of us.
- It is possible to exclude non-payers from participating in most outreach programs—and enjoying the *private* *benefits*—but it is not possible to exclude non-payers from receiving the *public benefits* of those programs.

- Laura Kalambokidis, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, *Creating Public Value With Extension, 2007.*

## How does an Extension program create public value?

- Does it narrow an **information gap**?
- Does it address a crucial concern about **fairness**?
- Does one person’s participation **benefit** people who do not participate in the program?
- Does one person’s participation **reduce costs** on others?
- Does the program **avert an undesirable free market outcome**?

- Laura Kalambokidis, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, *Creating Public Value With Extension, 2007.*

## Slide 37

## CONCLUSION

- In selecting a framework, or helping others do so, assess its utility against its liabilities.
- Recognize that a good framework, especially one with relevant tools, can make a big difference in the speed and ease with which understanding or change can happen.
- There are no perfect frameworks - just ones that are more or less useful for specific purposes.

## WHAT IS EXTENSION'S ROLE?

- To understand different frameworks and use them appropriately
- To help people bridge between frameworks as needed
- To help people select frameworks that meet specific needs
- To develop additional tools that increase the power of specific frameworks
- To create frameworks if needed for specific purpose.

## WHY EXTENSION?

- Extension programs are based on current, defensible, unbiased **research**.
- The **exchange between field and campus** staff informs the research agenda, ensuring that program development addresses real needs.
- The university has built an **infrastructure** for both research and program delivery.  It would be inefficient for another public body to duplicate that infrastructure.
- Extension field staff are highly trained **educators**, who deliver programs using appropriate and effective teaching methods.
- Extension program teams **collaborate** with other public, private, and nonprofit service providers to ensure efficiency and prevent duplication of effort.
- Extension **recovers costs** by charging user fees when appropriate, and by seeking out third-party sponsors.
- Others?

- Laura Kalambokidis, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, *Creating Public Value With Extension, 2007.*

**Notes:**
In Cooperative Extension, we understand the value of our programs to participants.
But “public value” is the value of a program to those who do not directly benefit from the program.

## Characteristics of Effective Youth Development Programs

- Youth as resources
- Ecological Approach
- Caring adults and safe environments
- Belonging with rules
- Flexible and responsive

- Long-term
- Real work and real responsibility
- Experiences resulting in product or presentation

## What does it take to assist young people to become healthy, problem-solving, constructive adults?

- Youth must:
- Find a valued place in a constructive group
- Learn how to form close, durable human relationships
- Earn a sense of worth as a person
- Achieve a reliable basis for making informed choices
- Express constructive curiosity and exploratory behavior
- Find ways of being useful to others
- Believe in a promising future with real opportunities
- Cultivate the inquiring and problem-solving habits of the mind
- Learn to respect democratic values and responsible citizenship
- Build a healthy lifestyle
*Great Transitions:  Preparing Adolescents for a New Century*
- Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development

## If you were to design a youth development program intended to assist young people to become healthy, problem-solving constructive adults – 

*what would it look like?*

## What would it look like?

- It would offer opportunities for youth to experience *belonging*
- It would offer opportunities for youth to experience a *“hands-on”* laboratory
- It would offer opportunities for young people to *choose *
- It would offer opportunities to experience what it means to be a *citizen*

## ....from the Land Grant University.

*...**.from the Land Grant University.*