Youth programs are particular activities designed to involve people between the ages of 10 and 25. Activities included are generally oriented towards youth development through recreation

Recreation

Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...

, social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

 life, prevention, intervention

Intervention (counseling)

An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...

, or education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

. During youth programs participants might be involved in sports, religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, community service

Community service

Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....

, youth activism

Youth activism

Youth activism is when the youth voice is engaged in community organizing for social change. Around the world, young people are engaged in activism as planners, researchers, teachers, evaluators, social workers, decision-makers, advocates and leading actors in the environmental movement, social...

, youth service

Youth service

Youth service refers to non-military, intensive engagement of young people in organized activity that contributes to the local, national, or world community. Youth service is widely recognized and valued by society, with minimal or no compensation to the server. Youth service also provides...

, outdoor education

Outdoor education

Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...

, and more. Topics covered include youth empowerment

Youth empowerment

Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults....

, consumer rights, youth-led media

Youth-led media

Youth-led media is any effort created, planned, implemented, and reflected upon by young people in the form of media, including websites, newspapers, television shows and publications.-Movement:...

, youth rights

Youth rights

Youth rights refers to a set of philosophies intended to enhance civil rights for young people. They are a response to the oppression of young people, with advocates challenging ephebiphobia, adultism and ageism through youth participation, youth/adult partnerships, and promoting, ultimately,...

, and more.

Youth program focuses and activities generally depend on the location, culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

, education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, and ideals

Ideal (ethics)

An ideal is a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal. Ideals are particularly important in ethics, as the order in which one places them tends to determine the degree to which one reveals them as real and sincere. It is the application, in ethics, of a universal...

 of the individuals and organizations involved. These programs are offered by government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and businesses around the world.

See also

• Youth development
• Youth participation
  Youth participation
  Youth participation is the active engagement of young people throughout their communities. It is often used as a short-hand for youth participation in any many forms, including decision-making, sports, schools and any activity where young people are not historically engaged.-Coinage:Youth...
  
  
• List of youth organizations
• Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs
  Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs
  The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs is a group within the executive branch of the U.S. government, and is responsible for promoting achievement of positive results for at-risk youth...
  
  

Examples

• EU Youth in Action Programme
• YMCA
  YMCA
  The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
  
  
• Scouting
  Scouting
  Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
  
  
• Boys and Girls Club
• National Youth Rights Association
  National Youth Rights Association
  The National Youth Rights Association is the largest youth-led civil rights organization in the United States promoting youth rights, with approximately ten thousand members...
  
  
• Snowboard Outreach Society
  Snowboard Outreach Society
  SOS Outreach was renamed from Snowboard Outreach Society in 2007 to coincide with its expansion to include skiing. It is an American youth program 501 non-profit organization founded in 1993 in Avon, Colorado by Arn Menconi...
  
  

Youth Model Governments

• European Voluntary Service
  European Voluntary Service
  European Voluntary Service is the European Commission's project that allows a young person to become a volunteer in another country for a specified period, normally between 2–12 months...
  
  
• Elevate (organization)
  Elevate (organization)
  Elevate is a youth-driven foster care program that was started in the summer of 2005 in Des Moines, Iowa as a support group for foster and adopted youth...
  
  
• Dreams for Kids
  Dreams for Kids
  Dreams for Kids is a 501 non-profit, charitable organization founded in 1989.The organization empowers at-risk youth and those with disabilities through a variety of programs.- Mission :...
  
  
• buildon
  Buildon
  buildOn is an international nonprofit organization that runs youth service afterschool programs in United States high schools, and builds schools in developing countries...
  
  
• Girls With A Purpose