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Advancing Youth Development: A Curriculum for Training Youth Workers

NCJ Number
165923
Date Published
1996
Length
700 pages
Annotation
This curriculum is intended for training youth workers in successfully meeting the psychosocial needs of youth, helping them build a full range of competencies needed in adulthood, and preventing violence and juvenile delinquency.
Abstract
The curriculum introduces youth workers to a youth development approach that encompasses a set of values, knowledge, and strategies that underlie and provided added value to other more specialized competencies of youth workers. The curriculum was pilot tested in 10 organizations that represent exemplary practices in training at the community level. The curriculum is designed to make participants familiar with a youth development approach to youth work, teach them practical service strategies associated with this approach, and help them become stronger resources to their organizations and community. The curriculum's seven sections introduce the youth development approach, explain developmental youth outcomes, examine cultural assumptions and stereotypes about young people, present strategies of youth participation, present best practices relating to supports for youth development, explain the core competencies of youth workers, and provide review and practice. The curriculum is intended for use with a cross-section of youth workers from different organizations in a community. Facilitator guidelines; guidelines for each session, including outlines and handouts; and full text of 14 background readings