Teen Outreach, sponsored by the Association of Journal Leagues in cooperation with the American Association of School Administrators, was a school-based program that encouraged youth to perform volunteer service in their communities (Allen, Philliber, & Hoggson, 1990). The Teen Outreach program was identified as only one of a limited number of programs with documented effectiveness in reducing teenage pregnancies. A review of four years of data from the program show that it reduced teenage pregnancy, school failure, and dropout rates by 30-50% relative to matched groups of students. While this was significant itself, the techniques that the program used are important to consider. The emphasis of the program-volunteer service-empowered students by taking them out of classroom roles and giving them a chance to be help givers rather than help receivers. The authors suggested that the volunteer component of the program provides important lessons for other preventive interventions targeted at adolescents.

Nahill-Hankey (1991), motivated by a concern for academic underachievement and developmental failure among minority youth in an urban school, examined 29 low-income, multicultural teens, most of whom were Hispanic. Hispanic youth appear to be at increased risk for academic failure due to feelings of alienation, mistrust of teachers, social isolation, and lack of meaningful curricula. Students in this study were identified as demonstrating high-risk behaviors for personal and academic failure and were referred to the program. The peer leadership program allowed students to make a contribution to the culture of the school by assisting teachers in overcrowding classrooms, promoting self-esteem and prosocial values, developing leadership skills, and improving classroom relationships. The researcher used qualitative research methods to study the relationship between differential school achievement and involvement in this youth leadership program. The results from this study revealed that students involved in the peer leadership program gained greater confidence, self-efficacy, and feelings of empowerment.

Dibenedetto (1991) used qualitative research methods to explore the essential ingredients for youth empowerment. The personal accounts of youth belonging to six diverse organizations were studied using interview techniques that developed personal stories about the youth prior to group involvement, the youth's significant experiences with the group that led to empowerment, and emerging themes in the youth's experience of the empowerment process. The research concluded that emotional nurturance, intellectual challenge, and shared power with adults were three essential components in successfully transforming these youth from lack of power to empowerment. Consequently, an organization wishing to empower youth should provide emotional nurturing that consists of a safe environment, closeness, expression of emotions, conflict resolution, and acceptance of diversity. Similarly, to develop youth empowerment, a positive climate that includes intellectual challenge should be encouraged. Organizations that promote intellectual challenge provide an environment in which youth receive sophisticated training and education, critical thinking development, and development of their own means of expression. Finally, youth should be encouraged to achieve empowerment in the context of shared power. Shared power in a nonauthoritarian relationship with an adult leader gives youth the opportunity to experience and exercise power. This enables them to develop the skills to take appropriate action.

Wallerstein and Bernstein (1988) developed the Adolescent Social Action Program (ASAP) through the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. The goal of the program was to empower youth to make healthier choices in their lives and play an active political role as members of their communities. ASAP uses the Freirian principles of experiential learning, dialogue, sharing, empathy, critical thinking, and social action. Adolescents in this program talk with patients and families in hospitals and with residents of county detention centers who have suffered the consequences of drug or alcohol abuse. During the visits and subsequent video triggers, adolescents are encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings regarding what they experience. Emphasis is placed on empowering the adolescents to problem solve and do something about the substantive problems that they see during these sessions. Through critical thinking, adolescents choose short-term winnable goals that build the belief that they can make a difference, and which serve to alter the balance of power in the community. As the adolescents evaluate and celebrate the successes of their actions, they become empowered to choose the next action, which may bring them closer to the community change they desire. Wallerstein and Bernstein called this aspect of empowerment problem-posing, rather than problem solving, as it emphasizes the complexity and long-term nature of individual and community change.

Ortiz-Torres (1994) studied the ecology of empowerment in at-risk youth in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New York. The sample consisted of 1,333 adolescents. Results from the study showed there were psychological and behavioral dimensions of empowerment. The psychological dimension was indexed by academic and social efficacy expectations and self-esteem. Behavioral empowerment was assessed by surveying adolescent negotiation strategies with their social environment. Frequency of involvement/participation with five microsystems was measured: family, peers, school, church, and neighborhood. Results showed that males reported higher psychological empowerment than females. Females showed a higher level of behavioral empowerment, meaning they were more effective in interpersonal skills. While black and white adolescents did not differ in their psychological empowerment, blacks and Latinos did differ on this measure. Latinos reported the lowest psychological empowerment, as measured by the survey instrument.

Involvement with peers was the most important predictor of behavioral empowerment across ethnic and gender groups. This was a negative relationship; the more involvement with peers, the less the youth were behaviorally empowered. None of the five microsystems surveyed facilitated psychological empowerment for blacks or whites, while family involvement was positively related to psychological empowerment for Latinos. For white females, family was an important predictor of behavioral empowerment, while for black females, involvement with neighborhood was associated with behavioral empowerment. For Latino females, church involvement was negatively associated with behavioral empowerment.

Lugo (1996) presented a case study of the use of empowerment education to develop women's skills to create peer support groups that brought other women together. The case study examined the successes and limits of attempts to develop empowerment skills in a low-income, inner-city, predominantly African-American community. The Resource Sisters/Companeras Program was an effort to develop the conditions and structure to foster empowerment in health education. The program, designed for pregnant women, was developed to employ and enhance the natural skills of women to assist others, provide outreach and case management using home visits, and develop ongoing peer support groups. Through peer counselors and peer support groups, the project created conditions conducive to empowerment. Collective problem solving and social cohesion occurred among the participants. However, the program was limited in its success due to conflicts in funding, limited focus of the program (pregnancy), and lack of staff empowerment skills. Lugo concluded that commitment to empowerment must occur at all levels of a project: "Empowerment efforts are likely to be most successful when the commitment to empowerment and community development is consistent, held closely by funding sources and staff, and reflected in organizational structure and activities" (p. 287).

At-risk adolescents are often seen as failures and potential liabilities to a community. Zoerink et al. (1997) used service learning opportunities to foster personal and social empowerment in at-risk youth. The Carry-Out-Caravan II and Campus Service Learning Project allowed junior and senior high school youth to provide yard maintenance, house painting, grocery shopping and delivery, and recreational services for older persons in their community. This project allowed these youth to be viewed as assets within their community. The authors suggested that service learning activities such as these enhance personal and educational development in youth while contributing to the reduction of social alienation among elders as well as youth.

In a study that examined the factors that influence youth participation and empowerment for community development promoting heart health, Altman, Feighery, Robinson, Haydel, Strausberg, Lorig, and Killen (1998) found a positive association between student perceptions of the importance of community change outcomes and actual participation. The importance of the value that students placed on having a heart-healthy environment was most strongly associated with community activities promoting heart health. The authors concluded that schools and teachers should incorporate the importance of citizen participation and community development into curricula, thereby equipping children with the foundation for becoming empowered to participate in community development activities. The authors also advocate for programs that provide students with opportunities to build better places to live through providing ways for active involvement in community projects and activities.

The First American Prevention (FAP) Center (Petoskey et al., 1998) was funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and was designed to increase both individual and communal empowerment in several Native American (Ojibwe) communities. The FAP Center is located within the primary community and is a tribally chartered organization of the Red Cliff Band of the Chippewa. The FAP Center provides a curriculum surrounding substance abuse prevention education, teaching values, and skills related to empowerment: solving problems, making decisions, and taking control over circumstances combined with spiritual themes. The project includes teacher training, a school component, and a community education component. Findings from the project show that student substance use and the expectation of use declined among students who were exposed to the project. In addition, the developmental, nurturing growth that occurred as a result of the methodology of the project allowed the community to develop a sense of harmony about the project and become supportive of its activities. This project used existing strengths within the Native American community to move change toward empowerment.