The 5 C’s model is familiar to many who work in the youth development sector. While its origins and evidence base are largely American based, it has been applied in the youth context of Aotearoa for some time.
The 5 C’s have been framed over the years as the key indicators of Positive Youth Development (PYD). Introduced by Karen Pittman, Merita Irby and Thaddeus Ferber in 2001 [3], and researched in depth by Richard Lerner and colleagues [20], these 5 C’s provide a way to conceptualise what PYD looks like.
Psychologist Dr Richard Lerner later stated that a young person who is strong in the 5 C’s will, over time, be on a pathway to developing the 6th C which is ‘contributions’ to self, family, community and institutions of a civil society.
These 6 C’s have been linked to the positive outcomes of youth development programmes and are viewed as describing the characteristics of thriving youth [20].
