The Lessons of Non-Formal Learning for Urban Youth

Non-formal learning for urban youth has a long history in the United States; it remains a source of innovation. This essay draws on literature about organizations that use community ties to encourage cognitive development and identity formation. It then describes how one youth organization in Camden, New Jersey uses presentations to the community of its in-house business projects as springboards into further development. Such non-formal learning structures can have wide application to other sites of learning.