This planning charter for the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act (YEDPA) explains the Department of Labor's basic principles in designing and implementing YEDPA programs to provide a framework for the development of YEDPA efforts. This booklet is divided into six sections. The first section briefly discusses priorities regarding the basic YEDPA program components and goals. Constraints regarding resources, programmatic foundation, limited staff, and program diversity are examined in the second section. Section 3 presents ten general principles which are central in the design and implementation of YEDPA. Attainable objectives for fiscal 1978, fiscal 1979, and the future are listed in section 4. Section 5 covers programmatic implications and describes the important elements of five new programs to provide a framework for forthcoming guidelines and technical assistance materials, and the final section briefly discusses the challenge of YEDPA. (EM)