The role of social capital in youth development: The case of "I Have a Dream" programs

This paper presents findings from a 2 1/2-year study that focused primarily on two "I Have a Dream" (IHAD) programs. To better comprehend the implications of bringing this youth development strategy model to scale, we also collected more limited interview focus group, and student performance data from the 10 other IHAD sites in Chicago. Each IHAD sponsor "adopts" an entire sixth grade class and together with a project coordinator provides these students long-term financial, academic, and social support with the hope that they will graduate from high school and attend college. Because IHAD sponsors "adopted" all of the sixth graders at a given school, we compared their graduation rate with the graduation rates of students who were in the sixth grade at the school the previous year. We found that the two IHAD programs were enormously successful Their graduation rates (71% and 69%) were roughly twice those of their respective comparison groups (37% and 34%). This study examines the programmatic features of IHAD that appear most responsible for its success and the implications for policy and practice. From a theoretical standpoint, our analysis of these cases focuses on the significance of differing forms of social capital (social trust, social networks, and social norms with effective sanctions) in enabling meaningful support of youth in inner-city contexts.