Ithaca Youth Bureau: Grant Writing

ERIC (Ebsco interface) :  

     A disciplinary database in Education—at all levels. ERIC provides access not only to relevant journal literature (citations for these end in a number preceded by EJ—ERIC Journal), but also to research published directly to ERIC (citations for these end in a number preceded by ED—ERIC Document. 

     Education uses its own Subject Headings, so a useful first stop is the ERIC "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to see what Subject searches will work here. This is also a helpful exercise in that once you have found the appropriate Subject Heading you can "explode" it (double click) and generate a list of related Subject Headings.  Among the Subject terms here are Citizen Participation, Community Action, Community Development, Community Organizations, Civics, and Leadership Training.  You don't have to add terms identifying your target group because--

    With Youth as your anchor Subject, try combining it with Community Development, Community Involvement, Community Leadership, Social Participation, Political Participation, or Service Learning.    You can also try the same combinations substituting Teenagers for Youth (fewer results, but worth browsing).  Another approach would be to begin with Youth Development as your Subject and add Community as a second Subject term.

     User Advisory: For any retrieved set of articles, there will be a box displayed on the left that will limit the articles to “Scholarly” journals—just check the box and click the “Update Results” button below.

General OneFile :
     The most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text.  Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic.  You might begin with Youth or High School Students.
     When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it.  Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect:   For this project, Political Actvity and Public Participation would be subdivisions to look at.  You might also try the Subject Youth Volunteers.  Alternately, open the Advanced Search and try Youth as a Subject in one slot with Citizenship or Volunteerism as Subjects in another.
      If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
     User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results.

PsycINFO :  
     The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary, so a visit to the "Thesaurus" above the search slots is a good idea. The most useful Subject term here is proabaly Community Involvement which you can combine with a particular age group by going to the Age Groups box below the search slots and choosing, in this case, Adolescence (13-17).  Other possible Subjects to combine with this age group are Political Participation, Leadership, or Activism.
     PsycINFO deals only with scholarly literature, much of it assuming a graduate-level understanding of the discipline.  But among these you may find interesting, accessible articles on your topic.  
     User Advisory: If what you're searching for are journal articles in English, it's a good idea to make these selections under Publication Type and Language below the search slots.