• convene an international group of researchers who could share, evaluate, and synthesize existing program evaluations and/or any other findings that document the extent and effectiveness of interventions in this area.
• gather evaluators of youth organizations or programs who could document "successful" practices and outcomes in this area.
• consider to what extent the United States may be distinctive with regard to youth civic engagement and in what ways it may share common elements with other democratic societies.
• To produce a consensus paper to delineate, as well as can currently be delineated, effective practices and evaluations.
• To disseminate the paper as broadly as possible.

Faculty, doctoral students, and researchers from all over the United States, as well as from England, Israel, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Russia attended. This conference was co-sponsored by the Brown University Center for the Study of Human Development, the Stanford University Center on Adolescence, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Six panels were held over the course of three days:

• Political Socialization and Engagement
• Towards a Civil Society
• Role of Schools
• Impact of Service-Learning
• Political and Civic Participation
• Transition to Citizenship