This report was published by the Urban Youth Working Group of the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership (NCRP).

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS REPORT:

This report is the product of many productive discussions within the Urban Youth Working Group of the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership (NCRP) from November 2014 through December 2017. The working group brought together community partners from youth- serving organizations and scholars from education, criminology, recreation, and social work to examine the impacts of growing urban socio-spatial inequality and polarization on youth.

The purpose of this report is to provide a high-level overview of the history and context of policies and programs in four areas affecting urban youth at the neighbourhood level:

• Schooling
• Policing
• Recreation
• Employment

This report offers an important understanding of the compounding effect of disadvantage in young people’s lives when policies and programs fail to recognize social difference, differential access to opportunities, and urban mobility in the lives of contemporary youth. Simply put, the overall impact of these policies is larger than their individual effects. And such negative overall impacts often come at the cost of access and opportunities.