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Five Areas of Youth Development with Related Outcomes and Activities

November 16, 2016 Publication
Fact Sheets
Resources
Area Name

Intended Youth Outcomes

Suggested Activities
Working
  • Meaningful engagement in own career development process
  • Demonstrated skill in work readiness
  • Awareness of options for future employment, careers, and/or professional development
  • Completion of educational requirements and/or involvement in training that culminates in a specific vocation or opportunity for career advancement
  • Established involvement in meaningful work that offers advancement, satisfaction, and self-sufficiency
  • Positive attitude about one’s ability and future in working in a particular industry or the opportunities to grow into another
  • Career exploration activities including career interest assessment, job shadowing, job/ career fairs, and workplace visits/ tours
  • Internships
  • Work experience including summer employment
  • Information on entrepreneurship
  • Networking activities
  • Mock interviews
  • Work readiness workshops
  • Visits from representatives of specific industries to speak to youth participants about the employment opportunities and details of working within their industry
  • Mock job search including web-based job searching, newspaper, “cold-calling,” resume writing, cover letter and thank you letter writing
  • Visit to education and/or training programs
  • Career goal setting and planning
  • Job coaching or mentoring
  • Learning activities using computers and other current workplace technology
Learning
  • Basic aptitude in math and reading
  • Rational problem solving
  • Ability to think critically toward a positive outcome
  • Logical reasoning based on personal knowledge
  • Ability to determine one’s own skills and areas of academic weakness or need for further education and training
  • Sense of creativity
  • Appreciation and the foundation for lifelong learning, including a desire for further training and education, the knowledge of needed resources for said training, and willingness for further planning
  • Initial and ongoing skills assessment, formal and informal
  • Initial and ongoing career/ vocational assessment, formal and informal
  • Identification of one’s learning styles, strengths, and challenges
  • Creation of a personal development plan
  • Contextualized learning activities such as service-learning projects in which youth apply academic skills to community needs
  • Monitoring of and accountability for own grades and creation of a continuous improvement plan based on grades and goals
  • Showcase of work that highlights a youth’s learning experience—an essay, painting, algebra exam, etc.
  • Development of a formal learning plan that includes long and short term goals and action steps
  • Group problem-solving activities
  • Preparation classes for GED, ACT, SAT, etc.
  • Peer tutoring activities that enhance the skills of the tutor and the student
Thriving
  • Understanding of growth and development as both an objective and a personal indicator of physical and emotional maturation
  • Knowledge and practice of good nutrition and hygiene
  • Developmentally appropriate exercise (will vary depending on a youth’s age, maturity, and range of physical abilities)
  • Ability to identify situations of safety and uphold those standards in daily life
  • Ability to independently assess situations and environments
  • Capacity to identify and avoid risky conditions and activities at all costs
  • Ability to learn from adverse situations and avoid them in the future
  • Confidence and sense of self-worth in relation to their own physical and mental status
  • Workshops on benefits and consequences of various health, hygiene, and human development issues, including physical, sexual, and emotional development
  • Role playing adverse situations and how to resolve them
  • Personal and peer counseling
  • Training in conflict management and resolution concerning family, peer, and workplace relationships
  • Community mapping to create a directory of resources related to physical and mental health
  • Meal planning and preparation activities
  • Social activities that offer opportunities to practice skills in communication, negotiation, and personal presentation
  • Sports and recreational activities
  • Training in life skills
Connecting
  • Quality relationships with adults and peers
  • Interpersonal skills such as ability to build trust, handle conflict, value differences, listen actively, and communicate effectively
  • Sense of belonging and membership, i.e., valuing and being valued by others, being a part of a group or greater whole
  • Ability to empathize with others
  • Sense of one’s own identity apart from and in relation to others
  • Knowledge of and ability to seek out resources in the community
  • Ability to network to develop personal and professional relationships

Youth Leadership program specific:

  • Ability to communicate to get a point across
  • Ability to influence others
  • Ability to motivate others
  • Ability to seek out role models who have been leaders
  • Ability to be a role model for others
  • Mentoring activities that connect youth to adult mentors
  • Tutoring activities that engage youth as tutors or in being tutored
  • Research activities identifying resources in the community to allow youth to practice conversation and investigation skills
  • Letter writing to friends, family members, and pen pals
  • Job and trade fairs to begin building a network of contacts in their career field of interest
  • Role plays of interview and other workplace scenarios
  • Positive peer and group activities that build camaraderie, teamwork, and belonging
  • Cultural activities that promote understanding and tolerance

Youth Leadership program specific:

  • Workshops in public speaking
  • Research on historical or current leaders
  • Contact with local leaders
  • Strategic planning to change something in the community or within the youth program
Leading
  • Ability to articulate their personal values
  • Awareness of how their personal actions impact the larger communities
  • Ability to engage in the community in a positive manner
  • Respect and caring for oneself and others
  • Sense of responsibility to self and others
  • Integrity
  • Awareness of cultural differences among peers and the larger community
  • High expectations for self and community
  • Sense of purpose in goals and activities
  • Ability to follow the lead of others when appropriate

Youth Leadership program specific:

  • Ability to motivate others
  • Ability to share power and distribute tasks
  • Ability to work with a team
  • Ability to resolve conflicts
  • Ability to create and communicate a vision
  • Ability to manage change and value continuous improvement
  • Personal plan development with goals, action steps, and deadlines
  • Resource mapping activities in which youth take the lead in planning and carrying out a search of community resources for youth
  • Voter registration and voting in local, state, and federal elections
  • Participation in town hall meetings
  • Community volunteerism such as organizing a park clean-up or building a playground
  • Participation in a debate on a local social issue
  • Training to be a peer mediator
  • Participation in a letter-writing campaign
  • Opportunities to meet with local and state officials and legislators
  • Participation in a youth advisory committee of the city/school board/training center
  • Learning activities or courses about leadership principles and styles
  • Group activities that promote collaboration and team work
  • Mentoring relationships with positive role models
  • Opportunities to serve in leadership roles such as club officer, board member, team captain, coach

Youth Leadership program specific:

  • Mediation/ conflict resolution training
  • Training in team dynamics
  • Training in project management

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