MISSION STATEMENT

Project IF's mission is to increase our understanding of how children and youth from low-income backgrounds invent their futures. Grounded in a philosophy of growth and optimal development, the project emphasizes "invention" or the development of possibilities, rather than prevention or intervention, which emphasize the reduction or remediation of problems.

The project approaches the study of possibility development through relationship-based initiatives like educational mentoring, future-oriented counseling, and related forms of applied development work. Our hope is that by better understanding processes of optimal development, we will be in a position to inform those fields of human service work that focus on possibility development for children and youth.

Central to Project IF's mission is the role of universities in the health and well-being of children and youth, and in the communities in which they reside. Locally, the project works in partnerships that connect Harvard University with public schools, health centers, and subsidized housing communities in the Greater Boston Area. Nationally, Project IF partners with service delivery and research organizations to study the impact of academic and social development initiatives such as mentoring, youth negotiation training, and entrepreneurship education. Other focal activities include an investigation of various programs aimed at promoting positive development in adolescent girls, and the study of youth negotiation and conflict resolution programming in the U.S. and Latin America.