Youth
Development and Research Fund (YDRF)’s
Workshops Programs,
Research and Technical Assistance
I. WORKSHOPS, TRAINING
It is unanimous among youth service operators that traditional methods and strategies of serving at-risk youth are not delivering adequate results. A fundamental shift in the way that programs provide youth workforce/ development services is required to remain competitive and efficient in today’s youth services industry.
As it stands, part of the problem stems from organizations’ inability to depart from a program model that has been in place since 1978, employing program strategies inconsistent with the changing nature of our youth population. It goes without saying that what worked in 1978 will not necessarily work in 2008. The dynamics of youth thinking and culture are undeniably different, and require that methodology bend and services be made relevant to this growing demographic. To answer this call, YDRF is proud to announce the Youth Engagement Training Series. Though the model is designed to accomplish the same goals as a traditional youth development programs, the “Youth Engagement” model focuses on imparting services through an entirely new approach. This approach is based on a culturally responsive, student centered model.
YDRF has made available comprehensive training and staff development services for upper-level management, front-line staff and youth participants. Below is a list of our current workshops and trainings:
Staff Full Day Programs (Five Hours)
1. Youth Engagement 101
Traditional youth development strategies are not enough to capture and sustain youth program participation. Clear and substantiated evidence must exist to illustrate a Program's success, both visibly and articulated, in engaging community youth in youth culturally relevant activities. It’s insufficient to merely point out the services offered. Young adults are not solely interested in services and offerings. Far too often they have been disappointed by false promises. Many youth are simply impressed when their peers are actively and genuinely engaged in some form of developmental activity. When asked, “What program activity would your students say they enjoy spending the most time in and why?” The majority of Program staff are unable to answer the question. The demonstration of “evidence of engagement” needs to be real for all area youth.
Developing a Youth Engagement System requires careful planning, execution, and a continuous system of refinement, documentation and evaluation. In this workshop, YDRF engages participants in an examination of the six necessary steps to build a solid youth engagement system.
2. Beyond Incentives
Are you tired of paying youth to learn or prepare for work? Let the YDRF team help you and you staff explore the complicated issue on incentives. Take a look at some innovative incentive programs that involve the use of “intrinsic” as well as “extrinsic” motivators to learn. The YDRF staff will help your organization develop a tailored “intrinsic” motivating program for your agency.
3. Power Recruitment
This interactive and upbeat workshop will provide cutting-edge solutions to recruitment and marketing efforts for the hard to find, out-of-school youth population. Gain valuable insight on effective and proven methods of youth engagement, program promoting, advertisement, and PR. Learn helpful tips on determining your target demographics, maximizing your advertising dollars, and developing business partnerships to ensure recruitment success.
4. Radical Results through Youth Involvement
Research has shown that youth engaged in youth leadership activities show more progress in terms of increased labor force participation, increased academic and social skills, and commitment to positive growth and development than youth only engaged in work preparation activities. In this training, participants will learn how to effectively utilize youth in the classroom and community to increase program outcomes.
5. Youth Engagement through Youth Popular Culture
For the most part, current youth popular culture has had a limiting and destructive impact on the future economic life chances of the youth served in programs across the U.S. To turn this tide around, YDRF developed a strategy to use the current preferences of youth participants to emphasize educational and workforce outcomes. In this training, youth service providers learn how to integrate youth popular culture with current program teaching strategies to improve educational and workforce outcomes for youth and the programs.
6. The Power of Peer Influence
While the number one influence on youth is peers, very little program attention has been paid to its use as a positive force to promote educational and workforce outcomes. In this training, participants will focus on innovative, easy to implement peer influence practices and activities to promote educational and workforce achievement. Programs learn how to use this very important existing resource to promote attendance, achievement and commitment to long term growth and development.
7. Keeping Youth Connected
Perhaps the least understood and most successful program strategy that has led to successful youth development has been post program support services. Unfortunately, the majority of program services cease their efforts once the formal program is over. In this training, participants examine post program strategies used by programs across the country. Participants discuss the implications of providing post program services and the opportunity it provides for improved youth services. Participants also develop a post- placement support plan for youth in their program.
8. Labor Market Connections for Youth
Access and connections to labor markets are extremely important for youth service providers. Their ability to provide young people with a diverse set of employment experiences helps to develop the credibility of a program. From unpaid to paid work experiences or apprenticeships to entrepreneurships - finding a way to connect the young person to the labor force is extremely important. Most young people will experiment with a series of jobs before they settle down. As a result, it is instrumental to provide a young person with various work opportunities. In this way, work should be viewed as a developmental tool, not an end in itself. This training helps participants to explore the myriad of labor market connections that can be provided to youth at different levels of employability.
9. Youth Cultural Competence (YCC)
This one-day seminar is designed to introduce youth service professionals, policy makers, and advocates into the innovative pathway of Youth Culture Competence (YCC) and provide insight into how YCC can help programs to effectively recruit, retain, and engage young people. During the seminar, participants will conduct a complete YCC assessment of their organization. The information generated by the self-assessment will be used to design a tailored program improvement plan where participants will use the three main elements of YCC: Youth Involvement; Youth Popular Culture; and Positive Peer Influence to improve program performance. In addition, participants will learn the basics of how to harness YCC to improve recruitment, retention, and follow-up efforts.
Staff Two Day Programs
1. YCC Two-Day Youth Cultural Competence (YCC) Institute
The YCC Institute training is designed specifically for youth programs and includes a needs assessment, training objectives and outcomes tailored to the sites’ strengths and weaknesses in serving youth. Front line staff, educational and vocational instructors and counselors will learn to utilize youth popular culture, peer culture, and YDRF’s learner-centered belief model to create impacting and results-driven change. This training is enhanced by testimonies and concrete evidence from the field that demonstrate how programs across the country are utilizing YCC to connect youth with positive developmental outcomes and successfully address the 10 required elements of service as laid out in the Workforce Investment Act.
2. Effective Youth Engagement Project: E-YEP
E-YEP is more than a two day seminar. At YDRF, we are well known for conducting powerful presentations on youth engagement. We are continually the highest ranked presenter at conferences and workshops. However, all of our attendees call for one thing: WE NEED MORE! The seminar is just the introduction; we all know the real change comes in the day-to-day work. The Effective Youth Engagement Project includes six months of on-line coaching (and site visits at an extra cost) as our way to provide programs with the support, assistance and coaching needed to make a radical difference in recruitment and retention efforts.
Every month, through our on-line coaching platform at www.reachallyouth.com, YDRF focuses on a different topic relating to engagement and retention. Programs are challenged to take action to increase engagement ability. In addition, programs are held accountable for the implementation of activities designed to assist in increasing levels of engagement. Every month on a group call, YDRF staff receives input from programs about progress and the challenges faced.
YCC is the under girding philosophy of the Effective Youth Engagement Project. It is the idea of creating recruitment and engagement strategies that: meet the interests of targeted groups; are executed by well-trained staff and peer support workers (PSWs); and consists of engaging activities designed to promote the importance of program completion measures, education, and workforce attachment.
In the Effective Youth Engagement Project, we will learn how to implement the 6 steps to Effective Program Engagement:
Step 1: Developing Youth Culturally Competent Recruitment Messages
Step 2: Effectively Delivering Youth Culturally Competent Messages to Target Groups
Step 3: Getting Target Groups Through Program Doors
Step 4: Keeping Target Groups Engaged
Step 5: Fail Proof Follow-Up Strategies
Step 6: Maintaining the Process
The Logistics
— Exclusivity
Due to the intense nature of this service and the required commitment involved by both parties, YDRF is only making this service available to staff of the sponsoring organization. No other agency or entity is permitted to attend the event. In the case, that another agency is interested in participation, additional fees are necessary.
— Youth Involvement
The ideal E-YEP seminar will have one organization represented with total attendance of no more than 50 individuals. Of the 50, we require one young adult from leadership classes, athletics, and other activities to join at the rate of one to every five adults. In this manner, each E-YEP seminar will contain adequate youth participation and involvement. To ensure the success of your program, we reserve the right to cancel the program if the proper number of young adults cannot be provided for the E-YEP SEMINAR.
— Coaching Club Membership
Under this agreement, YDRF is providing access to the Youth Engagement Coaching Club to one member of the sponsoring organization. The success of this initiative centers on the implementation of the various phases of E-YEP. By signing this contract, the sponsoring organization is committing to full involvement in the Effective Youth Engagement Coaching Club.
For more details on setting up a successful E-YEP Seminar, please download the E-YEP Coordinator’s manual here.
Call 301-216-2566 for pricing.
Youth One Day Programs
1. MAKiN’ iT Day
See MAKiN iT Day Page for description
2. FEO Years (Four Hours)
Many schools and youth programs are only realizing marginal success at helping youth complete their education, prepare for jobs, and improve their level of academic performance. Communicating a message about the importance of education and work experience has been difficult, to say the least. Part of the problem lies in the fact youth don’t realize the importance of education and work experience to their economic future. The years of ages 14-26 are a young person’s “MAKiN’ iT” years, not wealth building years.
During “MAKiN’ iT” years, youth should focus on understanding and gaining 5 key elements of FEO (Future Economic Opportunity):
- Skills
- Credentials
- Experiences
- Positive Support Networks
- Degrees
Youth Two Day Programs
1. Peer Support Worker Training
YDRF will provide training for youth enrolled in workforce/educational programs and schools. The training will be designed to help youth focus on principles they will need to take a leadership role in ensuring that their Youth/Workforce Development System truly meets young people “where they are.” The training will utilize the principles of YCC to encourage youth leaders to take an active role in developing the program. Training content will focus on the development of YCC “Peer Support Workers”- a group of youth that will focus on improving the YCC of workforce and educational efforts in the following areas: Philosophy, Recruitment, Environment, Management, Leadership, Engagement, Curriculum and Outcomes.
II. RESEARCH
YDRF conducts research on effective practices and policies associated with the provision of services for at-risk youth. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, YDRF identifies and disseminates information on how to effectively provide young adults with viable education, employment and developmental opportunities. Additionally, YDRF specializes in disseminating knowledge about urban youth culture and has over fifteen years experience using this information to connect to youth and to promote educational and workforce achievement.
III. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE/COACHING
During the technical assistance and coaching phase, YDRF staff provides the following services:
- supplemental training
- site visits followed by progress reports
- individuals staff coaching and mentoring
- on-line coaching and monitoring
- feedback and evaluation
True integration of the YDRF framework takes place when an organization has transformed its program in a youth culturally competent fashion, involves youth, utilizes the power of positive peer influence and respects the use of positive youth culture.
The integration of the YDRF framework is a constant, involving process and is the primary reason why YDRF always offer organizations continued support and guidance, both as a distance coach and in the form of prolonged, in-depth TA, to ensure that this evolving is taking in place.
To find out about availability or pricing please call
301-216-2566.
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