Social capital

"Disadvantage is related to the breakdown of the infrastructure of supportive networks, and increased sources of human capital have been found to be positively related to youth successfully negotiating high-risk environments" (Laser).

In developing a successful youth development program, it is important to recognize how and to what extent that program will increase social capital to the children and the community. Social capital has many elements, including "trust, bonding, bridging, and obligation" (Laser). If these elements are clearly instituted in the youth development program, the youth's self-worth in the community will increase and so will their social capital. So we really need to think about how our program will create all these elements- which essentially are tied to relationship building. How do we create strong relationships within the community center, and then bridge these relationships outside the center? It is something we need to consider carefully when laying out the framework of a problem. It is really difficult for me now to answer this right now, as I know very little about the community ALA serves. I am starting to understand the framework of youth development programs; however, that is more just the theory. How can we increase the social capital of a community if we do not know the deficiencies of the social capital to begin with? I am going to investigate the community's demographics to start to put all this theory into context.

Article on social capital
Julie Anne Laser and George Stuart Leibowitz. "Promoting Positive Outcomes for Healthy Youth Development: Utilizing Social Capital Theory" Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. MArch 2009. Ebsco.