Community Youth Development Initiative
Community Youth Development helps meet YOUTH needs for:
- Belonging by building caring, on-going relationships
- Mastery by creating opportunities to take on new challenges and learn new skills.
- Independence by offering leadership positions
- Usefulness through participation in long-term community service.
helps ADULTS:
- Enhance their commitment and energy
- Increase their confidence in working with youth
- Overcome negative stereotypes about youth
- "Make a mark" on their community
- Recognize youth as competent and involved contributors. They can handle responsibility and deserve to be more than "tokens" on community project committees.
helps ORGANIZATIONS:
- Partner with youth and adults to create positive community change
- Develop a clearer mission and focus
- Include youth involvement as an essential expectation
- Become more involved in the community
- Connect with and respond to youth
- Place greater value on inclusiveness and representation
- Be more appealing to funding sources
helps COMMUNITIES by offering:
- Readiness assessments
- Consultation and technical assistance to build youth/adult/organization cooperation
- Long-term support, training, and coaching
- Access to extended resources
- Certification for participants
Educational components
Iowa State University Extension is known to other state youth-oriented organizations as the source of effective programming for youth development. Here are a few of the basic programs that can be tailored at the local level to meet specific individual community needs. Certification for participants can be provided for most programs.- Assessing community readiness
- Training for youth/adult partnerships
- Building and sustaining community collaborations
- Identifying elements of effective youth development programs
- Encouraging youth leadership skills
- Understanding youth development
- Involving youth as board members
- Creating learn-by-doing opportunities
- Managing change
- Planning for action-oriented results
