ABSTRACT
In terms of social policy, adolescents are currently one of the most poorly served population subgroups in the United States. Adolescents, somewhat like artists and writers, are particularly sensitive to the prevailing social climate – its changes, its often conflicting or ambiguous values, its deficiencies and opportunities. Ten percent of all female adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 become pregnant each year, and over a quarter of these pregnancies are terminated by abortion. Youth participation is a sound strategy to enable young people to undertake responsible and rewarding involvement in the adult world. Most efforts at "treating" delinquency have had relatively little success, in many instances being a case of too little and too late. The various specialists and social institutions, in turn, each tend to focus upon only one aspect of the child or adolescent. Even middle-class schools, however, often provide little basis for unbridled enthusiasm.
