High Impact Practices with Urban Youth Circles at the Center

High impact practices are evidence-based educational practices that have been shown to increase student learning and raise levels of performance, retention, and success. The circle--commonly known as a discussion circle--is a key high impact practice linked to positive outcomes for urban youth. Circles are effective tools for enhancing communication, promoting emotional support and healing, and encouraging problem-solving and creativity. In High Impact Practices with Urban Youth--Circles at the Center: A Guidebook for Practitioners and Scholar-Activists, Yan Dominic Searcy and Troy Harden provide research-based best practices in an accessible format to bridge the gap between practitioners and researchers who are specifically working to improve the life outcomes of urban youth. Targeted to assist front-line practitioners, program directors, and those training to be practitioners, this book reflects Searcy and Harden's combined over five decades of work with urban youth and imparts high impact practices to influence interventions and program design. Each chapter begins with a brief narrative from a discussion circle, reflective of the authors' interactions with youth or program staff that is germane to a high impact practice. The best youth work combines art and science, emotion and skill. High Impact Practices with Urban Youth effectively blends both to ground the next generation of interventions aimed at improving youth program outcomes whether the programs are targeting juvenile justice, health promotion, education, sports, leadership, or mentoring.