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10.2 The Youth Social
Entrepreneurship (YSE)
Model
The Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) model
integrates the practices of positive youth development with community engagement and social
entrepreneurship to enable mutual transformation of economies, neighborhoods, and individuals. It was inspired by Dr. Melvin Delgado (2004)
and further explored in a white paper prepared by
Dr. Tina Kruse, entitled Youth Social
Entrepreneurship: Advancing the Field, for the
Sundance Family Foundation (Kruse 2015), and
in a book published by Oxford Press (Kruse
2019).
Youth Social Entrepreneurship offers a unique
opportunity for youth by bringing three key components of youth asset development strategies
together, as described further below:
10.2.1 Component A. SocialEmotional Learning
and Forging Youth-Adult
Relationships
Focusing on social-emotional development provides youth a structured means to improve interpersonal skills. “The interconnectedness that
results from social youth enterprises brings youth
centrally into their own communities and does so
in a manner that lends itself to creation of youthadult partnerships and interactions that historically have not been present in this society”
(Delgado 2004).
The YSE model supports the development of
personal agency. This became one of the strongest motivators for the development of new data
tools in the Wilder Research study by the YSE
managers as described later.
10.2.2 Component B. Community
and Cultural Engagement
to Create Social Capital
Focusing on community and cultural engagement
supports youth as they explore their own cultural
environments, take progressive leadership roles,
and participate in civic and cultural opportunities
within their communities. As the youth become
more culturally engaged, their social capital
increases. Social capital can be helpful in finding
and maintaining a job, a family, and a home
(Woolcock and Narayan 2000). Helping youth
cultivate their social capital and networks is
admittedly a very long-term strategy but one that
can help young people to create predictability
and gather resources as described in Bowling
Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Communities by Robert Putnam (2000).
Because parental social capital has been
shown to be an important predictor of adolescent
social capital, it follows that youth whose families are marginalized may experience lower levels of social capital. To this end, YSE programs
can enrich youths’ social networks by supporting
interactions with broader sets of individuals.
Facilitated development of relationships could
thereby grow an individual young person’s social
networks, eventually affecting their future opportunities (Weiss, 2012).
10.2.3 Component C. Work
Readiness
and Entrepreneurial Thought
Focusing on interdisciplinary elements of workforce readiness, the concept of entrepreneurship
is taught through explorative value creation
(Kruse, 2019). Youth in YSE enterprises are typically creating financial plans, dealing with customers, and communicating a vision (Fisher et al.
2008). These activities enforce the development
of agile thinking, team interactions, and completing assignments both alone and together with
others, as well as taking direction and providing
peer feedback to others.
In traditional entrepreneurship education programs, workforce readiness might be taught
through exercises, or role-playing in hypothetical
situations. Using the YSE model, students participate in various aspects of the enterprise. For
example, they may work as teams and often take
independent roles after observing their peers.
While this makes the enterprise inefficient in
P. Thomas et al.
10.2 The Youth Social
Entrepreneurship (YSE)
Model
The Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) model
integrates the practices of positive youth development with community engagement and social
entrepreneurship to enable mutual transformation of economies, neighborhoods, and individuals. It was inspired by Dr. Melvin Delgado (2004)
and further explored in a white paper prepared by
Dr. Tina Kruse, entitled Youth Social
Entrepreneurship: Advancing the Field, for the
Sundance Family Foundation (Kruse 2015), and
in a book published by Oxford Press (Kruse
2019).
Youth Social Entrepreneurship offers a unique
opportunity for youth by bringing three key components of youth asset development strategies
together, as described further below:
10.2.1 Component A. SocialEmotional Learning
and Forging Youth-Adult
Relationships
Focusing on social-emotional development provides youth a structured means to improve interpersonal skills. “The interconnectedness that
results from social youth enterprises brings youth
centrally into their own communities and does so
in a manner that lends itself to creation of youthadult partnerships and interactions that historically have not been present in this society”
(Delgado 2004).
The YSE model supports the development of
personal agency. This became one of the strongest motivators for the development of new data
tools in the Wilder Research study by the YSE
managers as described later.
10.2.2 Component B. Community
and Cultural Engagement
to Create Social Capital
Focusing on community and cultural engagement
supports youth as they explore their own cultural
environments, take progressive leadership roles,
and participate in civic and cultural opportunities
within their communities. As the youth become
more culturally engaged, their social capital
increases. Social capital can be helpful in finding
and maintaining a job, a family, and a home
(Woolcock and Narayan 2000). Helping youth
cultivate their social capital and networks is
admittedly a very long-term strategy but one that
can help young people to create predictability
and gather resources as described in Bowling
Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Communities by Robert Putnam (2000).
Because parental social capital has been
shown to be an important predictor of adolescent
social capital, it follows that youth whose families are marginalized may experience lower levels of social capital. To this end, YSE programs
can enrich youths’ social networks by supporting
interactions with broader sets of individuals.
Facilitated development of relationships could
thereby grow an individual young person’s social
networks, eventually affecting their future opportunities (Weiss, 2012).
10.2.3 Component C. Work
Readiness
and Entrepreneurial Thought
Focusing on interdisciplinary elements of workforce readiness, the concept of entrepreneurship
is taught through explorative value creation
(Kruse, 2019). Youth in YSE enterprises are typically creating financial plans, dealing with customers, and communicating a vision (Fisher et al.
2008). These activities enforce the development
of agile thinking, team interactions, and completing assignments both alone and together with
others, as well as taking direction and providing
peer feedback to others.
In traditional entrepreneurship education programs, workforce readiness might be taught
through exercises, or role-playing in hypothetical
situations. Using the YSE model, students participate in various aspects of the enterprise. For
example, they may work as teams and often take
independent roles after observing their peers.
While this makes the enterprise inefficient in
P. Thomas et al.