Understanding and Strengthening the Child- and Youth-Serving Workforce in Low-Resource Communities
A special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology
Guest Editors:
Elise Cappella, Erin Godfrey, & Anil Chacko
Achieving the intended outcomes of policies and programs to support children and youth in low-resource communities is largely driven by the quality of the staff and services. Yet there is growing recognition that many child- and youth-serving providers are under-prepared to achieve the goals of their work. Research on teachers and teaching is plentiful but less is known about individuals who work with youth in systems as varied as child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and mental health—individuals whose positions are often unstable, underpaid, and/or part-time. Rich and rigorous empirical, conceptual, and practice-oriented articles focused on the child- and youth-serving workforce are needed to better understand and advance workforce development and organizational interventions, and thereby achieve the goal of enhancing the lives of young people in low-resource communities.
This special issue aims to 1) advance understanding of the characteristics, experiences, and/or practices of service providers who work with children and/or youth in low-resource communities and 2) inform policy and practice on workforce development. Proposals (up to 750 words + 1 page of references + 1 page of tables/figures) for manuscripts that explicitly address one or both of these aims are invited. Possible settings of focus include but are not limited to: afterschool programs, childcare and early education, special education, mental health and substance use, primary care and health, community-based prevention, child welfare and juvenile justice.
Manuscripts may be conceptual, empirical studies or praxis-oriented pieces, but all must advance understanding and/or inform policy and practice on the understudied service providers who work with children or youth in low-resource communities. All proposals and papers should highlight how the manuscript accomplishes these goals. We encourage submissions from researchers across disciplines—psychology, sociology, policy, education, and others—and from practice and policy professionals.
Submission process: Authors should submit proposals by email to the Guest Editors of the Special Issue no later than November 15, 2017. Guest Editors will review the proposals and invite authors by January 15, 2018 to submit a full manuscript, subject to peer review and consistent with AJCP guidelines for reviewers. All submissions should be in English and proposals should state the type of article proposed as described in the AJCP Instructions for Authors available on the online submission portal (www.edmgr.com/ajcp). Types of articles may include: original articles (theory or research), mixed methods research, first person accounts, advancing science, or empirical reviews. The deadline for submission of manuscripts is May 1, 2018. Initial acceptance and Online First publication is anticipated as early as Winter 2018-2019. Send proposal submissions or inquiries to the Guest Editors: Elise Cappella: elise.cappella@nyu.edu; Erin Godfrey: erin.godfrey@nyu.edu; and Anil Chacko: anil.chacko@nyu.edu.