Capacity-building for youth workers through community-based partnerships

Area of Science:

• Youth Development
• Social Work
• Community Psychology

Background:

• Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a growing field, yet youth worker competencies remain undefined.
• Youth-serving agencies face workforce stability and training challenges.
• PYD-oriented partnerships offer a strategy for staff development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe two community-based partnerships aimed at enhancing youth worker knowledge and competence.
• To demonstrate how partnerships can improve youth worker skills and agency capacity.

Main Methods:

• Partnership 1: Experts in youth work, health, and trauma collaborated to improve youth worker response to psychological trauma using reflective practice.
• Partnership 2: Evaluation skills were taught to youth consumers, AmeriCorps members, and youth workers to foster youth-adult partnerships.

Main Results:

• The partnerships provided models for enhancing youth worker competencies.
• Iterative reflective practice helped define best practices in youth work.
• Teaching evaluation skills advanced youth-adult partnerships.

Conclusions:

• Community-based partnerships are effective for improving youth worker competencies.
• These partnerships can drive systemic improvements in youth services.
• Collaborative approaches strengthen the capacity of organizations serving youth.