Community Toolbox
One of the strongest allies you will have in presenting your case to potential funders is the body of educational and social science research supporting the validity of concepts underlying youth bicycle education program design. Also program evaluations, whether of your own program or another bicycle education program, can lend credibility to your work and to the track record of YBEN programs in improving youth potential.
Currently the body of scholarship and professional evaluation related to the YBEN movement is still quite small. But one excellent example, a 1997 study the Joan Wynn wrote for the Harvard Project on Schooling and Children, should add some academic weight to your future funding proposals.
Wynn’s study specifically mentions Bicycle Action Project (BAP) in Indianapolis and the Recycle-a-Bicycle (RAB) program in New York City that is associated with the Children’s Aid Society. Both programs are presented as exemplary youth development programs from the standpoint of their ability to connect effectively with the youth participants, with schools, and with other key institutions in a healthy community –something which Wynn calls “primary supports”. The study is summarized below.
| The Bicycle Action Project expects young people to be responsible for themselves and for a bicycle. Youth interested in participating fill out an application and have to persist in setting a first and subsequent appointments for the 12 weeks it takes most youth to earn a bike. Young people interested in owning a more complex bicycle, a racing bike for example, are required to take home their basic bike and bring it back in sound repair as a trade-in after investing another 24 hours in learning more advanced bike mechanics. In these earn-a-bike activities and in interactions with shop customers, youth are expected to arrive on time, to work intensively as part of a small group of youth and adults, to be attentive and respectful to each other, instructors, customers, and equipment alike. From: Wynn, Joan R. Primary Supports… |
Characteristics of highly effective programs. Wynn performed a multiple case study of nine youth development programs including BAP and such well-known ventures as El Puente in Brooklyn and the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Explainer Program. Her analysis of these programs concluded that such exemplary youth programs have seven characteristics in common which result in their superior effectiveness and which “parallel those recognized in other effective institutions…”
The characteristics Wynn mentioned were:
a) Group endeavors in which youth initiative is central
b) Authentic activities and issues
c) High expectations of students
d) Group problem-solving
e) Concrete products
f) Prospects for advancement and expanded opportunities
g) Adults acting as caregivers, catalysts, and coaches.
Wynn explains how these key attributes show up in all of the most effective programs in her study. She then cites specific examples of each attribute is manifested in selected programs. The latter half of her report describes how these programs tend to make especially productive connections with fundamental community institutions, particularly schools. In that context she mentions the RAB program in New York City which offers bicycle repair instruction to students both as an alternative industrial arts program and after-school activity.
One of Wynn’s objectives is to determine how schools and primary supports can network in a way mutually increases the benefits of both types of institutions to the youth they serve.
Supportive Research: Findings in Youth Development
Product Type: Article Review
Name: Wynn, Joan R. (1997). Primary supports, schools, and other sectors; implications for learning and civic life. Prepared for the Harvard Project on Schooling and Children Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago. 33 three pages, bibliography.
Availability: To get a copy of Wynn’s report, send a request to the Re:Cycle Editor, 31 East 52nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205, email: chammond@iupui.edu.
