Sustaining Effective Youth Programs by Building Organizational Capacity

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Sustaining Effective Youth Programs by Building
Organizational Capacity

• Jutta Dotterweich
• ACT for Youth Center of Excellence
• NYS Advancing Youth Development Partnership
• jd81_at_cornell.edu

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ACT for Youth

• mobilize communities to advance youth
  development strategies and promote the
  involvement of youth and families to improve
  healthy outcomes for young people in New York
  State.

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ACT Communities COE Partners
University of Rochester Division of Adolescent
Medicine
Erie County
Seneca County
Cornell UniversityFamily Life Development Center
New York State Center for School Safety
Cornell University Cooperative Extension - New
York City
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What is Positive Youth Development?
A philosophy or approach that guides communities
in the way they organize programs, supports and
opportunities so that young people can develop
to their full potential.
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Key Principles of Youth Development

• Positive Outcomes

• Youth Voice

• Strategies Aim To Involve All Youth

• Long Term Involvement

• Community Involvement

• Focus On Collaboration

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PYD Focus

• Improving outcomes for youth by changing

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ACT- Moving to Outcomes
Improved positive outcomes for youth
Increased opportunities  and supports for young
people Increased youth engagement and youth
voice Community policy changes reflecting
positive youth development principles
Increased awareness and adoption of positive
youth development principles and practices
CCC Partnerships
Reduced negative outcomes for youth
Organizational changes reflecting positive youth
development principles
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Engaging Youth in Meaningful Roles
INCREASED INFLUENCE ON ORGANIZATION
MORE OPPORTUNITIES MORE YOUNG PEOPLE CAN GET
INVOLVED
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Brief Activity
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Hypothesis Sustainability
For positive youth development to occur,
organizations must intentionally create an
environment that

• - supports a positive outcome focus,
  strengths-based approach
• - encourages learning about positive youth
  development
• - offers opportunities and supports for youth to
  engage
• - explores linkages with other community systems

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A Few Basics of Organizational Behavior

• Different organizational roles (administration to
  frontline) might have a different focus and
  interest
• Every organization has its own culture cultural
  values do not always align with organizations
  expressed values and actions
• Staff satisfaction is the primary driver for
  customer satisfaction
• Staff satisfaction and performance is greatly
  impacted by an inclusive organizational culture

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Organizational Focus
Executive Director
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Edgar Scheins Concept of Culture
Artifacts Visible, tangible expressions (where
people park, who gets what offices, doors open or
closed, décor, dress code)
Espoused Values What the organization tells the
world (and itself) it believes in and stands for.
Values in Use What the organization follows and
enacts in its actual practices and
decision-making.
Basic Assumptions The taken-for-granted way we
do things around here that are not normally
brought to consciousness, let alone questioned,
and which guide and shape the way the
organization organizes itself.

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Core Basic Assumption

• Young people do not have the skills, expertise
  and experience to make meaningful contributions
  to the agency
• Adultism
• the behaviors and attitudes which flow from
  negative stereotypes adults hold about youth.

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Implications

• Basic assumptions will need to be addressed if
  not, they will become obstacles
• Different roles within the agency (different
  focus interest) might lead to different
  interpretation of PYD
• ?staff participation will be important
• Youth empowerment requires staff empowerment

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Individuals and Group Level

• Concept of Unfreezing
• Survival Anxiety Learning Anxiety
• Cognitive Dissonance

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Resistance and Compliance
Fairness Issues
Relationship and Trust Negatives
RESIST
CHANGE
Substantive Issues
Errors and Omissions Intercept
Faster to Tipping Point
Persuasion
COMPLY
Functional but Sub- Optimal Result
Coercion
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Pilot YD Organizational Development

• Obtaining administrative buy-in
• Participatory process to gain knowledge and
  involvement of staff (interpretation and
  diffusion effect)
• Credibility of information
• Insight into overall, dept/units, and groups of
  people
• Follow with more in-depth analysis and
  intervention planning

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Pilot - Process
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
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Organizational Self-Assessment

• Web based survey
• 8 constructs (4 youth development, 4
  organizational culture)
• Demographics identify sub groups
• Roles, departments, part vs full time,
• length of affiliation, gender, race, etc

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Integrating PYD in Organizational Components
Focus on Positive Youth Outcomes/ Strength-based
Approach Learning about PYD Approach
Youth Engagement Community
Linkages

• Systems
• Resource
• Allocation
• Information
• Documentation
• Planning
• Community
• Linkages
• Physical
• Plant

• Support
• Structures
• (for Youth
• Engagement)
• Resources
• Staff
• Policy
• Training
• Recruitment
• Plan

• Personnel
• Recruiting/
• Hiring
• Orientation/
• Training
• Performance
• Review
• Recognition

• Leadership
• Style
• Focus
• Communication

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Activity Personnel Practices

• Recruitment and Hiring
• Orientation of New Staff
• Supervision/Performance Review
• Retaining Quality Staff
• Source NYS AYD Partnership Curriculum
  Strengthening Organizations through Youth
  Development www.nyayd.org

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YD Organizational Constructs

• Youth Development
• Strengths-based approach
• Community Connectedness
• YD philosophy
• Youth engagement

• Organizational Culture
• Openness
• Inclusion
• Fairness
• Leadership

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Sample Statements

• Construct Strength-based approach
• My organization encourages staff to pursue
  professional development based on their
  individual strengths and interests.
• Construct Community Connectedness
• Our public relations material reflects the
  cultural diversity of the community we serve.

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• Construct Youth Development Philosophy
• Training and information on youth development is
  available to all staff and volunteers.
• Construct Youth Engagement
• Young people are involved (should be) involved in
  the hiring process for youth workers

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• Construct Openness
• A non-threatening environment in which people
  reveal their true selves characterizes this
  organization.
• Construct Inclusion
• In my organization staff are empowered to make
  work-related decisions on their own.

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• Construct Fairness
• My organization provides safe ways for staff to
  voice grievances.
• Construct Leadership
• I can count on my supervisor to support me even
  when I am in a tough situation at work.

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Supplementary Data

• Youth survey
• Volunteer survey
• Board survey
• Strategic Plan

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(No Transcript)
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Significant Differences by Role
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Youth Survey 121
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Sub Group Residential Care
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Findings

• Results informed strategic planning process
• Participatory process started a more open dialog
  in the agency (more buy-in)
• Program staff learned that although they believed
  they did, in reality they found that they were
  not involving youth
• Staff (and board members) did not expect the
  results to be different from what they imagined
  but they were
• Staff could create a to do list to correct
  areas of weakness (immediate actions)

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Next Steps

• Additional pilots to validate and formalize
  assessment tool and process
• Develop a shorter organizational development
  presentation including a checklist, worksheets
  and discussion guidelines to move motivated,
  smaller organizations forward
• Tool bank for sample policies and practices

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Resources
NYS Advancing Youth Development
Partnership www.nyayd.org
ACT for Youth Center of Excellence www.actforyouth
.net www.nysyouth.net