A Description of Quality in an Urban Out-of-School Time Center Incorporating Youth & Staff Perspectives

Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs in Out-of-School Time (OST) settings aim to support the social, emotional, and academic development of youth participants. Recent studies reveal that the interrelated factors of: youth characteristics, the community context, program quality, and participation can affect youth participants' developmental outcomes in PYD programs in OST settings. The purpose of this study was to obtain the perspectives of youth and staff, using interviews, focus groups, and observations, to describe the components of program quality (i.e., climate, relationships, and engagement) in a PYD program in an urban OST setting. The design for this research was a descriptive case study. The participants in the study were twenty-eight youth and three staff members at one well-established OST setting. Youth at the Boulevard Center were reported to have participated in the program for an average of five years, were successful in school and with peers, and were residents of an urban community with high rates of violence and under performing schools. Youth participated in focus groups where they described their view of program quality in their OST program. Staff members reported their view of quality in an interview and in response to the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) tool. The researcher collected additional descriptive data using the YPQA tool for observations, and through the collection of permanent products. The results from the youth focus group responses, the staff interviews and their YPQA responses, and the researcher's YPQA observations were analyzed using pattern matching. Results revealed patterns across youth, staff and the researcher's report that youth worker/youth relationships were central to program quality at the Boulevard Center.