Welfare Reform on the Web (October 2002): Child Welfare - Overseas

DOES AMERICA HAVE A YOUTH DEVELOPMENT POLICY?

A B Halm

Youth and Policy, no. 76, 2002, p.66-76

Article examines the barriers to a strong national and state role in shaping youth development policy in the USA. These barriers to creative policymaking reflect the immaturity of the youth work field itself, which can be described in the American context as "in the making" rather than fully evolved with a set of consistent and adequate policies in support of local initiatives.

LOCAL YOUTH PROJECTS: POLITICAL RHETORIC AND STRATEGIES: THE SWEDISH CASE

L Lundahl

Social Policy and Society, vol. 1, 2002, p.247-255

Youth questions such as education, employment and social issues now form a political field of their own in Sweden, youth politics. Article focuses on the contents and character of this field at the local level. Finds that youth policies at local level contain elements of traditional, collectivist, welfare thinking. There was consensus that the family has the prime responsibility for youth matters and that young people are responsible for their own lives. However there was also general agreement that the community must support families and young people with problems.

SURE START: REFLECTIONS FROM DOWN UNDER

G V Vimpani

Child: Care, Health and Development, vol. 28, 2002, p.273-275

There has been increasing concern in English-speaking countries about rising youth crime, substance abuse, behavioural problems and suicide. Governments are tackling these problems through early childhood interventions such as the Sure Start programme in the UK. Article discusses the evidence base for these interventions, whether strategies should be targeted or universal, and how they should be evaluated.