Colorados Positive Youth Development Movement

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Colorados Positive Youth Development Movement

• Anne-Marie Braga and Amy Engelman
• April 30, 2009

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Objectives

• To share
• Colorados definition and principles of positive
  youth development (PYD)
• Background and history of Colorados PYD movement
• Initial summary results of Colorados PYD
  statewide assessment
• Next steps for PYD in Colorado

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We need to focus on the positives and personal
strength skills to help kids overcome risky
behaviors and not only focus on educating about
the drawbacks of risky behaviors.
Steamboat Springs Youth We have everything we
need. We just need to develop a way to work
together to collaborate, decrease duplication and
utilize each of our communitys strengths.
Arkansas Valley Youth-Serving Professional Im
hearing that we are waiting until they get into
trouble. Why wait? Any services for the not yet
into trouble? Colorado Springs Family
Advocate
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What is Positive Youth Development?

• PYD is a philosophy, not a program, that guides
  communities in the way they organize services,
  opportunities and supports so that young people
  are engaged and reach their full potential.
• Its a shift in the way we work with youth.
  Namely, we must engage all youth as resources
  instead of seeing them as problems to fix.

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Colorados 7 PYD Principles

• These are the principles that all communities,
  organizations, families and individuals should
  incorporate when working with, living with and
  even thinking about young people.
• Strengths-Based a positive focus on physical
  and mental health, education, social, vocational,
  creative, spiritual civic outcomes
• Youth Engagement youth are connected to
  themselves and positive peers, adults
  communities
• Youth-Adult Partnerships youth work with adults
  to make decisions for program and policy
  planning, implementation evaluation

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Colorados 7 PYD Principles (Contd)

• Culturally Responsive people recognize
  respond proactively to variations in backgrounds/
  cultures, including but not limited to ethnic,
  racial, linguistic, learning and physical
  abilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic
  status and geographic location, to ensure
  inclusivity and equity.
• Encompasses ALL youth (not just youth in risky
  environments or exhibiting risky behaviors)
  regardless of the participant base for more
  targeted prevention, intervention and treatment
  programs
• Collaboration private and public agencies
  state and local and the community, including
  families, work together to support youth
• Sustainability long-term planning through
  funding, capacity building, professional
  development and evaluation exist for ongoing
  support of youth

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Background

• Colorado Department of Public Health and
  Environments adult and youth advisory boards
  wanted to shift the way we think about young
  people and focus on their strengths
• November 2007 Creation of the Colorado Youth
  Development Team (CYDT) Youth and adults
  brainstormed a vision for Colorado youth

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Colorado Youth Development Team

• Vision Colorado is a state where all people
  value and pursue respect, communication and
  understanding between youth and adults to achieve
  a unified, healthy and engaged community, so that
  both adults and youth reach their full potential
  and lead healthy lives.
• Mission To raise awareness, promote, increase
  and unify positive youth development efforts and
  strategies across the State of Colorado.

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CYDTs 5 Action Plan Objectives

• All begin with In partnership with diverse
  youth
• Develop a team of champions made up of youth and
  adults to develop and implement an action plan to
  address PYD in Colorado.
• Conduct a statewide assessment to determine what
  supports are necessary and desired of the State
  and CYDT to increase PYD efforts across Colorado.
  
• Identify and further develop sustainable funding
  streams to support PYD activities
• Promote youth development and infuse concepts and
  strategies into state and local infrastructure,
  including policies, regulations, strategic plans
  and evaluation indicators
• Provide training and technical assistance on PYD
  to build capacity at the state and local levels

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Colorado Statewide PYD Assessment

• Today our focus is on CYDTs Objective 2
• Colorado Department of Public Health and
  Environment supported the research through
  funding from the Maternal Child Health Bureau
• Statewide Assessment
• Statewide Online Survey
• 13 Community Conversations

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We are Walking the Talk!

• The entire assessment process has been guided by
  a small group of young people from Colorados
  Youth Partnership for Health, the youth advisory
  board for the Colorado Department of Public
  Health and Environment
• They provided their insights and feedback from
  developing the research question, to analyzing
  the results and drafting the report.
• So, a special thanks goes out to them for their
  time and dedication!

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Online Survey Highlights

• Comprised of 51 questions seeking information on
  how programs across Colorado are addressing
  positive youth development
• Electronically sent to 400 stakeholders across a
  variety of disciplines (education, public health,
  human services, afterschool programs, etc.)
• Received 348 completed surveys representing all
  64 Colorado counties, including Ute Mountain Ute
  and Southern Ute tribal communities!

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Community Conversations

• Essential to hear the voices and stories behind
  the numbers in the survey.
• Held thirteen 2 ½ hour community meetings with
  20-60 youth, parents, youth-serving professionals
  and other interested community members attended
  each meeting. (Youth and parents received gift
  cards for their time and travel expenses.)
• They were held in 12 areas across Colorado
  (Alamosa, Aurora, Avon, Colorado Springs, Denver,
  Durango, Grand Junction, La Junta, Loveland,
  Pueblo, Steamboat Springs and Yuma). In addition,
  we conducted a focus group in Aurora with parents
  who predominantly speak Spanish to ensure that
  this perspective was heard through the research.

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Community Conversations Were Held Across Colorado
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Community Conversations Outline

• What does positive youth development mean to you?
• How youth-friendly do you feel your community is?
  
• What are some of the strengths and innovative
  practices that are going on in your community to
  make it more youth-friendly? How is your
  community addressing the 7 PYD principles?
• What are some of the challenges or areas of
  improvement that your community needs to address
  to be more youth-friendly and address the 7 PYD
  principles?
• What can your community do to tackle these
  challenges?
• How can the State and the CYDT support your
  community in being more youth-friendly and
  addressing the 7 PYD principles?
• How can your community be part of the CYDT and
  continue this conversation in making Colorado
  more youth-friendly?

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A Sneak Peek at the Draft Findings and
Recommendations
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Findings from the Online Survey

• 84 youth advisory boards exist across Colorado
• 66 of direct service providers and 56 of
  resource providers organizations mission,
  vision, goals and strategies mainly reflect their
  commitment to positive youth development.
• 38 of direct service providers are providing
  exposure to and discussion of diverse cultural
  perspectives most of the time
• 26 of resource providers and 22 of direct
  service providers engage youth in their planning
  and program development most of the time

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Findings from the Community Conversations

• Innovative and exciting PYD efforts exist across
  Colorado
• The most powerful experiences for young people
  are the ones where they have some level of
  contribution and decision-making power
• Communities expressed that convening
  parents/caregivers, youth and youth-serving
  professionals was both unique and powerful.
• Youth-serving organizations recognize and desire
  support in engaging culturally diverse families
  and youth.

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Recommendation 1 Support youth and young adults
using a strengths-based approach.

• Focus and build upon youths strengths, skills
  and protective factors, as opposed to educating
  mainly on the consequences of the risky behavior.
  One critical component emphasizes youth-serving
  professionals increasing their positive attention
  to youths family and cultural assets to
  encourage celebration of their culture.
• Provide physically and emotionally safe spaces
  for youth. Offer young people opportunities to
  talk with one another about issues that concern
  them, including those that make them similar and
  different. Ensure that a caring adult is involved
  to guide and facilitate creating a safe
  environment where issues can be directly
  addressed with research-based information.
• Increase evidence-based programs that focus on
  youth development, such as peer-mentoring
  programs, that support students in navigating
  transitional times or comprehensive sexual health
  programs that teach young people to respect their
  bodies, make healthy choices and learn
  interpersonal communication skills.

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Recommendation 2 Engage youth, families and
communities in a culturally responsive way

• Create meaningful opportunities and spaces for
  diverse youth and families to contribute as equal
  partners in decision-making processes in
  organizations and the community. Start out by
  going to where they are on their turf. Then,
  find a way to develop a mutually beneficial
  relationship that values and supports their
  contributions.
• Set youth and families up for successful
  engagement, partnership and collaboration. Some
  ways to do this include
• Training youth and families on the skills and
  background knowledge required of them to
  participate meaningfully and confidently.
• Training decision-makers and power-holders on how
  to engage youth and families in providing input,
  how to partner with them and what to do if their
  hands are tied and they are unable to act on
  the youth or families suggestions and ideas.
• Creating the space and time for building diverse
  cultural relationships and having open and
  reflective cultural conversations as a group to
  learn about each individual, as well as how to
  improve individual, organizational and community
  cultural responsiveness.

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Recommendation 2 (Contd) Engage youth,
families and communities in a culturally
responsive way

• Involve young people in the development of
  programs through focus groups, internships,
  apprenticeships, as consultants and throughout
  the entire process of program assessment,
  planning, implementation and evaluation.
• Honor and support the myriad of learning styles
  and interests of youth. Young people are problem
  solvers and are motivated by their own interests
  and concerns. Inquire about what they are and
  utilize them in your organizations planning.
• Support educators in allowing their classes to be
  more student-driven so that students are more
  engaged and invested in their education.
• Support and guide families who are new to the
  education system in the U.S., or have had their
  own negative experience, in supporting their
  childrens schooling.

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Recommendation 3 Develop policies that stick,
in spite of the ever-changing political, social
and economic climate

• Create policies with adequate funding to support
  low student-teacher ratio classrooms and
  activities in schools, afterschool programs and
  community-based organizations to allow for
  supportive relationships and student-driven
  processes.
• Create policies, and possibly tax incentives, to
  entice businesses to support and offer
  community-wide and affordable youth and family
  events and programs.
• Develop policies that recognize the changes in
  21st Century family culture (e.g., schools could
  expand the school day by formally offering and
  including afterschool opportunities for all
  students on its campuses).

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Recommendation 4 Enhance funding strategies to
ensure that PYD principles and policies stick

• Increase funding opportunities for
• Developing positive, fun options and supportive
  environments for all youth to engage in as a
  primary, universal prevention and youth
  development strategy.
• Community-wide cultural trainings, conversations
  and celebrations to address racism and other
  forms of oppression
• Local, affordable and accessible behavioral
  health prevention and intervention services
• Training and technical assistance for positive
  youth development strategies and practices and
• Developing safe and engaging places for youth to
  hangout at night and on the weekends.
• Funding entities should require that grantees
• Provide evidence-based programming that
  demonstrates the promotion of inclusivity and
  equity and
• Offer healthy foods for school, afterschool and
  community programs and events.

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Recommendation 4 (Contd) Enhance funding
strategies to incorporate positive youth
development strategies

• Organize the funding systems to the extent
  possible to
• House all funding opportunities in one place
• Simplify and standardize the administrative and
  reporting processes as well as eligibility and
  referral requirements
• Provide technical assistance in the grant writing
  process, especially to communities that have few
  resources to be competitive on their own
• Incorporate positive youth development language,
  principles, strategies and evaluation into grant
  and funding guidance and
• Provide feedback to denied proposals for
  improvement purposes.

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Recommendation 5 Improve coordination efforts
to maximize resources and program effectiveness

• Develop a coordination system for local and state
  positive youth development advocates of all
  fields and levels of professionalism to share,
  discuss and leverage resources, including funding
  opportunities.
• Create a youth-friendly website for outreach and
  collaboration across communities.
• Develop partnerships with Colorado Department of
  Transportation and local public transportation
  providers to address the lack of transportation
  that disenfranchises youth across the state from
  engaging in positive, community opportunities.
• Connect with local positive youth development
  champions in your area and beyond via the
  Colorado Youth Development social network Ning
  http//coloradoyouthdevelopment.ning.com!

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Next Steps for Colorados PYD Report

• A comprehensive draft report that integrates the
  survey and community conversation research was
  distributed to community conversation
  participants via email.
• Now incorporating their feedback
• Final report will be available for distribution
  in June 2009 and available at www.healthyyouthcolo
  rado.org

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Next Steps for Colorados PYD Movement

• Continue to implement CYDT action plan via 5
  committees/networks
• Outreach Committee Ensure CYDT is inclusive of
  diverse state and local, public and private
  partners, families and youth across Colorado in
  all CYDT efforts.
• Research/Evaluation Committee Develop measures
  to evaluate the CYDTs effectiveness and impact
  as well as support organizations in conducting
  positive youth development evaluations

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Next Steps for Colorados PYD Movement

• 3. Funding Committee Leverage sustainable
  funding to support local and state positive youth
  development efforts.
• 4. PYD Infusion Committee Develop and advocate
  for positive youth development policies and
  language to be utilized across the state in all
  systems that work with youth and families.
• 5. Training Technical Assistance Committee
  Provide communities with state-of-the-art and
  localized training to enhance their positive
  youth development practice.

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For questions or more information, please contact
us! Amy EngelmanColorado Youth Development
Team CoordinatorCenter for Systems
Integration3222 Tejon StreetDenver, CO
80211Phone [phone]Email
amy_at_csi-policy.org Anne-Marie BragaDirector of
Adolescent Health InitiativesColorado Department
of Public Health and Environment4300 Cherry
Creek Drive SouthDenver, CO 80246-1530Phone
[phone]Email anne-marie.braga_at_state.co.us