Noting the renewed attention given to community efforts supporting after-school activities to promote social competence in its youth, this book examines the concepts of play and rites of passage for youth. The book also discusses the contributions of various types of activities on youth social competency, presents a variety of perspectives for engaging youth in competency-promoting after-school activities, and focuses on the community planning necessary to successfully implement after-school programs. The chapters are: (1) "From Idle Amusements to Leisure Activity as Work for Youth" (Thomas P. Gullotta); (2) "The Uses of Theory in Primary Prevention Practice: Evolving Thoughts on Sports and After-School Activities as Influences of Social Competency" (Martin Bloom); (3) "Let's Play: Initiating Youth into the Healthy World of Play" (David G. Blumenkrantz); (4) "Sports and Social Competence" (Albert J. Petitpas and Delight E. Champagne); (5) "Girls on the Edge: Rethinking Out-of-School Programs for Adolescent Girls" (Joann Stemmermann and Janice Antonellis); (6) "Promoting Social Competency through the Arts" (Christianne F. Gullotta and Robert W. Plant); (7) "Integrating Resilient Youth into Strong Communities through Festivals, Fairs, and Feasts" (Maureen K. Porter); (8) "Issues in After-School Youth Development Programming" (Kathryn Edmondson); (9) "Re-Creating Recreation in the Inner City: A Youth Development Initiative in Detroit" (David Fukuzawa); and (10) "Youth and Community Development: How After-School Programming Can Make a Difference" (Steven J. Danish). Each chapter contains references. (KB)