David P. Weikart Center For Youth Program Quality

The core mission of the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality is to position point of service quality as a powerful public idea that drives the out-of-school time field towards higher levels of understanding, expectation, and action about the quality of experiences available to youth. Our youth development approach is based in positive youth development research, and the desire to create a safe, supportive, and productive environment for youth. The approach, pictured in the pyramid, is premised on the belief that it is a youth worker’s job to set up an environment for youth in which needs are met and learning is encouraged—to create a space in which youth can thrive. The pyramid provides a way to organize the many, many things a youth worker does to build a great experience for young people.