Accumulation of social capital in urban youth: When to begin the process?

This presentation will begin with a brief review of the literature on the impact of social capital investment timing from both effectiveness and cost perspectives. We will then relate our experience on the timing issue using evaluation results from four different human and social capital development programs implemented in the United States. These programs were targeted at different age groups: the Nurture thru Nature (NtN) Program (elementary school students), the 21^st Century Community Learning Program (middle school students), the Bridge-to-Employment (BTE) Program (high school students), and the STRIVE Job Training Program (adults). We will conclude with a discussion of the implications for returns to social capital investment conditioned on when such investment occurs over the lifecycle.