Paralleling the broadening of our definition of expected competencies has to be an acceptance of the importance of a second set of outcomes-those that allow young people to be not only competent, but connected, caring and committed. In addition to skills, young people must have a solid sense of safety and structure, membership and belonging, mastery and sense of purpose, responsibility and self-worth. But it is the supports and opportunities offered in these settings that are critical. Services alone will not draw youth in from the streets. Programs and organizations can have an enormous impact on youths' lives, but this impact is either amplified or dampened by the quality and congruence of what else is going on in their families, peer groups, and neighborhoods.
Young people grow up in a set of imbedded networks.
Any and all of these networks can provide the key inputs needed. In some communities, the networks are well equipped and well connected enough that a young person can get all that is needed naturally from family, neighbors, and an assortment of informal or individually negotiated experiences. In other communities, because these inputs are not available in sufficient quantity and quality, essential services, opportunities, and supports may need to be created. The critical question is how. At some point even the best-intentioned interventions, designed and implemented from the outside, are in danger of doing more harm than good if there are no efforts to imbed them within the natural or permanent supports in young people's lives.