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YouthBuild programs are uniquely designed to address the status of unemployed and uneducated young men and women who are disconnected from work and education. This study, on YouthBuild Las Vegas (YBLV), aims to fill the call for more research on transformative service research, specifically related to education, poverty and well-being. The program educates “opportunity youth” in construction skills while also encouraging progression toward a GED/HiSet or high school diploma. Service providers can better understand how to increase and support reconnection and well-being, especially among low-income individuals in communities with great needs for support services.

This yearlong qualitative research study intended to better understand transformative service within the context of former high school dropouts previously without a path to a productive future. YBLV was an ideal single-site case study because it was bound by space, people, organization and time. The study followed one YBLV class from admission through graduation; the qualitative work with the organization started prior to the students’ enrollment and continued after the students graduated. Primary data collections were interviews and observations. Additional data collection occurred in the forms of written documents, as well as photos and videos.

YBLV succeeded because of service providers’ attention to the funds of knowledge of the student population and adapting the format and structure of programs to adult learners, developing mentors for consumers and acknowledging the context and layers of knowledge that consumers brought to the program. The students were able to experience reconnection and increased well-being because of the service providers’ impact throughout the program.

Transformative service research (TSR) research has focused on areas as diverse as health care and homelessness, whereas the lens of funds of knowledge has primarily been applied within educational settings. It would be worthwhile to apply funds of knowledge framework beyond education yet still within the TSR agenda. There are also opportunities to apply the theory to other vulnerable populations. Broadening the scope of reconnection and well-being TSR research far beyond YouthBuild may identify additional or other synergies between these areas.

The growing body of research on TSR suggested a gap in understanding how service providers can support consumers in poverty and a need for greater well-being. This study on YouthBuild highlighted the phenomenon among low-income, undereducated, urban young adults and while the goal of qualitative research is not to be generalizable, specific examples such as adapting programs and structures to low-income consumers, developing mentors to model wanted behavior and goal-setting and acknowledging the funds of knowledge that consumers bring to situations, can be generic ingredients for future transformative service projects.

Research has demonstrated that public investment in programs that assist youth toward a positive trajectory and greater well-being is much more beneficial than disciplinary measures such as increased spending on policing and prisons. Employment and educational training programs have led to measurable success and when disconnected youth have greater vocational training and high school completion, they and the broader economy experience improved outcomes. Therefore, from a policy perspective, YouthBuild and programs like it emphasize growth, development and well-being for undereducated and low-income individuals.

The funds of knowledge theoretical framework are new to the Journal of Services Marketing (JSM). That framework coupled with the population of former high school dropouts in a second-chance school and a focus on service providers and well-being within a poverty context, all contribute to the paper’s originality. Reconnection is also a relatively new concept for readers of JSM. These three areas: funds of knowledge, reconnection and TSR are the backbone of this research.

This chapter examines the educational barriers that homeless youth face in one large urban area. The text reviews the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act and discusses how California has attempted to follow the federal mandates, and the implications for Los Angeles. The chapter utilizes interviews with 120 homeless youth and 45 policymakers, school counselors, and after-school program coordinators in Los Angeles to understand how youth experience the education system. The authors identify aspects of the federal mandate that impede the educational progress of homeless youth. The findings highlight that homeless youth are not a homogenous group and educational supports need to be designed recognizing the diversity of their needs. Implications for policy and program implementation are discussed as they pertain to one large city in order to generate future research that might support, contradict, or expand upon the findings.

Purpose – This chapter explains how the library profession is well-suited to developing and delivering library services that target the growing opportunity gap in the United States and identifies barriers to advancing this professional objective more widely in public libraries. The chapter identifies leadership and organizational development, enhanced graduate training and continuing education, and the need to overcome excessive modesty and passivity as fundamental to advancing this role.

Approach – This chapter documents declining opportunity in the United States. It summarizes the history of librarians’ professional accomplishments and services, and recent public library projects that illustrate the aptitude, expertise, values, and culture necessary to address declining opportunity. Reviewing pertinent literature and the authors’ observations, this chapter identifies barriers librarians face in rising to this challenge and offers solutions.

Findings – Factors limiting public librarians’ ability to address declining opportunity include too few leaders with a vision for librarianship rising to pivotal challenges, such as declining opportunity, and the management skills or training necessary to develop librarians’ potential to target such objectives; professional modesty and passivity rooted in gender bias; absence of graduate training and continuing education in quantitative and qualitative analyses as applied to decision-making, basic evaluation, and advocacy; and inadequate understanding of research and its application to services that target declining opportunity.

Originality/Value – The chapter elucidates the underdeveloped capacity of professional librarians to apply their aptitude, expertise, and professional values to one of the greatest challenges of our era – the decline of opportunity in the United States – and outlines steps that will support that goal.

In the wake of the Egyptian revolution, the role of the youth and their sense of belonging, the level of their understanding and responsibility have all been reevaluated in the society at large. It was a general belief that the youth were disconnected from the surrounding political events, their living environment, their history and any consideration of the future. The revolution challenged many of these convictions and this resonated in educational institutions. This paper presents a design studio experiment where students were given an area at the heart of the city, which carries historical significance, both in terms of events and its built environment. The area witnessed drastic change over the years, transforming it from elegance to chaos, where listed buildings have come to decay, occupied by ill uses. The area rarely attracts the youth who instead are attracted to emerging hubs in the city.

The paper explores an important pedagogical query; the capacity of the design studio to reinforce issues of identity, sense of ownership and belonging. It also raises questions of the role of the teaching staff in fostering cultural responsibility. Literature strongly recommends relating academic scope to the students’ surroundings and environment and for topics to be discussed in an integrated manner. It also suggests that the studio offers the ideal setting for integrating knowledge; where synthesis and application, reflection and action take place and where a student’s architectural identities develop. Less is mentioned in literature of a student’s cultural identity and sense of belonging.

Through a project in 2012, the students were divided into groups tackling four main aspects for a given location (the social, economic, physical and environmental aspects), then discussed and debated among themselves, facilitated by the tutors, in an active learning environment. Students collected their data using surveys, interviews, observations and document analysis which informed their design of a master plan and single buildings in the area. A critical pedagogy was adopted in the studio, encouraging students to think critically about the area reflecting on experiences and social contexts in which they are embedded. The studio experience was assessed using focus groups, interviews and individual project content analysis at two stages over the students’ final year. Assessing the learning experience over a long term, clarified the changes that occurred to the students’ vision towards the issues and problems that their design projects dealt with as well as their affiliation with the historic area. Results have implications both to the quest of identity and to the methods used to support a critical pedagogy.

The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss state inaction on and NGO responses to the hidden problem of youth disengagement in the form of social withdrawal.

The study is based on data drawn from six focus groups of social workers working with youths experiencing the problem of social withdrawal and another 30 individual interviews with service users having had this vulnerable background.

Substantiated with empirical findings, the paper argues that young people in social withdrawal characterized by their socially avoidant behavior and deprivation of an engagement status as a worker, student or trainee are largely invisible to the state because of the latter's insensitivity to the heterogeneity and diversity of disengaged youth and reproduction of the anti‐social notion of at‐risk youth. A flexible and tailor‐made strategy initiated by an NGO is argued to be more effective in meeting the needs of silently‐disengaged young people.

This paper critically examines state inaction on the problem of youth disengagement in the form of social withdrawal and argues the importance of adopting a flexible and tailor‐made strategy with regard to both outreaching and service provision efforts.

Purpose – Mobility of youth in multiple foster care placements contributes to diminished life chances and outcomes. Foster care youth mobility during care results in numerous school changes within one academic year which hinders educational achievement. This qualitative study examines a group of Latino alumni of foster care and their experiences related to housing and education.

Methodology – Interviews with 25 young Latino adults ranging in age from 18 to 22 examined foster care placement, transitions to independence, and experiences after foster care. Researchers used a semi-structured interview guide, and tape-recorded interviews transcribed and coded for emergent themes.

Findings – Results suggest that as youth experience school mobility, social capital aids in promoting positive educational experiences. This research emphasizes the importance of positive social capital for Latino foster care youth and their educational achievement, evidenced in both adult and peer social networks. Few studies have examined Latino foster care youth experiences, and currently there are no studies that address educational experiences of these youth.

The school-to-prison pipeline is a term used to describe the pathway traveled by students from public schools to incarceration in secure juvenile detention and correctional programs. It begins with students who are marginalized by the education system because of their academic and behavioral issues. The pipeline leads from school failure and disciplinary exclusion to involvement with the juvenile justice system. Youth who are ethnic minorities (especially those who are African-American or Hispanic) as well as those with educational disabilities (especially those with learning and behavioral disorders) are significantly overrepresented in data sets representing key points along the pipeline (e.g., students with poor academic achievement, high rates of suspension, expulsion, and dropout) as well as their high rates of incarceration. From his personal perspective and experience with the juvenile justice system, the author attempts to explicate the pipeline, and to describe efforts to impact it positively.

This study aims to illustrate how white supremacy culture can be produced within nonprofit organizations with a mandate to serve marginalized communities and provide practical suggestions for preventing oppression.

The site of inquiry was a nonprofit organization in south central Texas that provides social support to queer and trans youth. Through critical ethnography, the researchers evaluated the organization's processes and structure (including hierarchy, decision-making, fundraising and interactions between leaders, partners and affected groups) to explore how the organization perpetuated attributes of white supremacy culture.

Data reveal that the organization alienates the youth, volunteers and employees through defensiveness, fear of open conflict, paternalism, perfectionism and power-hoarding.

A dearth of research focuses on how white supremacy culture manifests in organizations serving marginalized communities. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on a nonprofit organization in central Texas that supports queer and trans youth. The authors offer recommendations for addressing white supremacy culture in organizations and suggest future research opportunities.