‘When you ask teens to develop content for their peers, the tendency is for them to regurgitate the same finger-wagging messaging that has been targeted at them for so long. Part of what you need to do with teens is teach them how to effectively reach their peers by generating messaging that is appealing, not alienating.’

With all the very best intentions and for the best possible reasons, most of us routinely use phrases that aren’t helpful in telling the story of the work we do and the people we help.

In the 1970s, our field barely existed. Now it does, because we built it. And we’re not simply fumbling along, doing our best. We’re being effective. There’s incalculable power in that.

If you’ve ever brushed up against the US Census, you know that these folks are collectively known as “Pacific Islanders.” So they’re one race, ethnicity, and culture, right? Wrong. Well, they’re essentially the same, right? Wrong.

In 1981, when I received my masters from Harvard Divinity School, our class of soon-to-be poorly paid pastors, community organizers, theologians and activists found ourselves marching into Harvard Yard right next to the soon-to-be handsomely paid graduating class of Harvard Business School.

Pets are non-threatening, they give unconditional love, they boost everybody’s self-esteem. I was just reading notes children had written in a second-grade class I work with. One note said, ‘Maj-En gives me his paw. Maj-En loves me.’

One look at her page and I could see that Savannah wasn’t a pudgy 10-year-old in pigtails any more. She was a pretty, if somewhat hard-looking, teenager. But I could still see the little girl underneath.

Like the rest of the neighborhood, the orphanage experienced daily power failures and water shortages. Their biggest current need, our tour guide told us, leading us through a dim and barren common room, was soap. We asked for clarification. Some special kind of soap? A medicinal soap? Just soap, he told us.

In the first episode, we meet the mom-to-be, a regular, fresh-faced girl from some small town in Kentucky or Texas or South Dakota. Somehow she’s gotten five months pregnant, and everyone — family, friends, boyfriend, the girl herself — still seems a little dazed.

If you’re saying ‘I’m so busy I can’t deal with volunteers,’ then you actually need the help of volunteers.

Staff members work together in stressful, fast-paced environments on a regular basis. They need the opportunity to slow down, laugh, and build relationships with one another. This can happen simply by cooking a staff meal together, taking a field trip to another nearby RHY program, or spending a day together on a ropes course.

Every research study is designed to demonstrate the relationship between one thing and another. It’s about action and consequences: If you do a particular thing, will another thing reliably happen? The benefit is that, done well, research tells you which way to go.

It’s easy for adults like me to be outraged and wounded in advance for little girls like the one I’m describing, who after all are learning at such a tender age to value themselves only through the appraising eyes of their peers and and the frankly predatory older boys who seem to beckon them ever closer