Chapter 3: High-Quality OST Activities and Programs: Using the RISE Approach (Relationships, Interest and Sparks, Empowerment) to Promote Thriving in Youth and Their Settings

Much has been written about the features that define high-quality in out-of-school time (OST) activities and programs, from structure, to staff qualifications and development, to content. Although the quality of the relationships youth have in those settings has certainly not been overlooked, not enough emphasis has been given to a sufficiently broad range of the specific features of the relationships youth need to experience. Nor has enough exploration been done in the way those relationships connect with other aspects of positive youth development to promote optimal youth development or thriving. And most measures of program quality do not emphasize enough the perceptions of youth themselves, as compared with staff perceptions, or the observations of outside raters. In contrast, in this chapter, I elaborate on how when youth experience what I call the RISE approach—the intersection and linkage of truly “developmental” Relationships, youths’ deep personal Interests and Sparks, and their Empowerment in OST activities—what is promoted is not just adequate development, but thriving in both youth and the settings they inhabit.