“I felt like that was my second home”: A qualitative study of adult engagement with opportunity youth in a workforce development program

Workforce development programs offer opportunity youth (young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market) important pathways to productive adulthoods. To be effective, these programs must attend to the particular needs of these youth who have typically experienced multiple forms of significant adversity. Specific features of program cultures that contribute significantly to positive youth outcomes have been identified. Yet, focused attention to what program staff actually do to cultivate this kind of program culture with opportunity youth is limited. This exploratory qualitative study sought to identify specific staff attitudes and behaviors that youth program alumni and current staff identify as contributing to the promotion of core features of a positive and effective program culture. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with 37 program staff and 15 youth program alumni were interviewed individually. A thematic analysis of these interviews resulted in the identification of specific staff attitudes, approaches, and actions that were perceived to have contributed to the cultivation of four aspects of program culture, namely belonging, respect, high expectations, and love.