As we talk about helping our teens succeed, what resources are out there that promote Positive Youth Development? This week I am going to talk about what positive youth development is and feature organizations that focus on improving the well being of youth.
What is Positive Youth Development?
Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a very broad term, but it is an actual program that is out there to help teens. According to Wikipedia and Youth.gov, positive youth development is “programs are designed to optimize youth developmental progress. This is sought through a positivistic approach that emphasizes the inherent potential, strengths, and capabilities youth hold. PYD differs from other approaches within youth development work in that it rejects an emphasis on trying to correct what is considered wrong with children’s behavior or development, renouncing a problem-oriented lens. Instead, it seeks to cultivate various personal assets and external contexts known to be important to human development.“
The philosophy behind Positive Youth Development is viewing youth as having the potential to succeed and not problems to be solved. The creation of such programs came from realizing that punitive responses to mistakes teens were making was not working. By creating activities and engaging with them, we can have them buy into the what we are saying and and work with parents and caring adults to help them succeed.
Positive Youth Development focuses on the same teen challenges we talk about on Mentoring A Dream and more. It is how we approach and talk to our teens that makes all the difference.
Resources that are out there
There are many people and organizations that want to help teens succeed and become the best versions of themselves. I am going to focus on two of them this week. Youth.gov and The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Youth.gov
According to their website, youth.gov (formerly FindYouthInfo.gov) was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP), to support programs and services focusing on youth. The IWGYP promotes the goal of positive, healthy outcomes for youth in four significant ways:
- Create and support youth.gov
- Create and support YE4C – Youth Engaged 4 Change (YE4C) website is the home of the IWGYP’s online youth engagement efforts. YE4C helps young people between the ages of 16 and 24 engage in change on personal, community, and national levels.
- Identify and disseminate promising and effective strategies to promote effective programs, practices and policies that address youth risk and protective factors.
- Promote enhanced collaboration
This website offers a lot of information about the challenges that teens face and resources available to help you. This is a gathering of many of the programs available on a federal level. The next resource I am going to talk about is the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is based in Baltimore, Maryland and run with funds from a private philanthropy. According to their website, their ideas are building a brighter future for America’s children, youth and families.
Their history
Their mission and the history of their organization is what caught my eye. Annie E. Casey was a widow raising four children near Seattle. Her eldest son, Jim, was deeply affected by the struggles that his mom faced raising him and his siblings in the early 1900s. Jim takes on jobs like starting a messenger service to help his mom and siblings. This service he created later started UPS. Later in life, Jim along with his siblings established the foundation to honor their mother and they started by supporting a camp for disadvantaged kids near Seattle. When UPS shifted its headquarters from Seattle to Connecticut, Jim, through a bequest, gave funds to a child welfare agency the foundation set up in Seattle. This gift allowed Casey Family Programs to continue operating as a philanthropy.
Their view
As we talk about the Positive Youth Development program, their view on it is (according to their website)
“Positive youth development strategies focus on forging positive relationships; strengthening academic, soft and technical skills; cultivating trustworthy, safe spaces; and offering youth opportunities to succeed in meaningful ways. Another defining characteristic of Positive Youth Development is that youth are treated as equal partners and engage with their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups and families in ways that are both constructive and productive.“
Like Youth.gov, the website is a great resource for information about the challenges that teens face. The resources that they are providing are all through their own foundation.
Both Youth.gov and The Annie E. Casey Foundation have great resources to help you help your teen succeed. I know of one more resource that I would like to share with you.
Mentoring A Dream
My mission is to help parents and caring adults reach the teens in their lives. Whether it be through a suggested resource or a way to understand how you feel about a certain topic. Through this website, we have
- a weekly blog which talks about these challenges.
- a resource page that offers some organizations that can help you with information about a specific challenge.
- post great resources and ideas on our Instagram platform.
And, on my author side, written by my pen name Selma P. Verde, we have The Way Series which is a coming-of-age series focusing on the challenges that they face. Here is a link to my author website to check them out Selma’s Books
There are many people and organizations that want teens to succeed. If you need help finding resources to help you, please check out any of the links provided above. You can be a big help to your teen’s success, but don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Or, reach out to these organizations with your thoughts. Let’s Talk About It!