scholarly journals Positive relationships in community youth development organisations: A reflection on changing organisational relationships in Girl Guides Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
Robyn Gibbs

AbstractWhen relationships within a community organisation are productive, staff are more likely to be happy, to understand and to be effective in their role. In youth-focused organisations delivering volunteer-led youth programs, a productive organisational relationship is essential to ensure effective recruitment, development and retention of staff, and the delivery of quality programs. This article provides a unique examination of the organisational relationships within Girl Guides Australia, between the volunteers who govern the organisation and those who deliver the youth program. The results of an extensive Australia-wide review of the adult volunteer training program are discussed, and changes to the ways in which relationships are fostered and understood in the organisation are outlined. The review has led to new understandings that modern volunteering requires changes to the ways in which organisational relationships are managed and supported, with a move away from compulsory ongoing training to a focus on volunteers as lifelong learners. Above all, this article shows how productive organisational relationships are when underpinned by founding relationships on openness and honesty, supporting relationships using learning and development, and building relationships using a quality people-management framework.

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 261-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tak Yan Lee ◽  
Daniel T.L. Shek

The Tier 2 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) targets adolescents with greater psychosocial needs, and the related programs were designed and implemented by school social workers. After completion of the Tier 2 Program (Secondary 1 Level), 9,931 participants in 212 schools responded to the Subjective Outcome Evaluation Form (Form C) in order to assess their views of the program, workers, and perceived effectiveness of the program. Based on the consolidated reports submitted by the agencies to the funding body, the research team aggregated the consolidated data to form a “reconstructed” overall profile on the perceptions of the program participants. Four major types of program were identified, including programs based on the adventure-based counseling approach (n = 58), programs concentrating on volunteer training and services (n = 31), programs offering both adventure-based counseling and volunteer training activities (n = 91), and other programs with different foci (n = 32). Results showed that high proportions of the respondents had positive perceptions of the programs and the workers, and over four-fifths of the respondents regarded the program as helpful to them. The present study provides support for the effectiveness of the Tier 2 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong for the Full Implementation Phase.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ady Ferdian Noor

National Education Minister's Regulation Number 41 of 2007: Process Standards for Primary and Secondary Education Units: Organizing activities to achieve Basic Competencies (KD) which are carried out interactively, inspiratively, fun, challenging, motivating students to enjoy actively, and provide sufficient space for initiative, creativity, and independence in accordance with the talents, interests and physical and psychological development of students. Learning activities in education are not just a process of delivering material, but will be done to make character, civilization, and promote the quality of life of students. Learning is directed to encourage education and the specific responsibilities of each individual who is able to become lifelong learners and realize a learning community. The principle of learning to underlie every step of learning to achieve character education, Based on behavioristic flow, learning is essential to building relationships with the Stimulus-Respons (S-R) response. Learning is an effort to display as many S-R relationships as possible. The learning steps are meaningful as follows: 1) Learning through the surrounding environment; 2) Make a concept map; 3) Give answers for prison groups in small groups (4-5 people); 4) Lessons for making joint Decisions based on each experience; 5) Inquiry; 6) Carry out exercises.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Richard M. Lerner

Youth development researchers and practitioners have the common goal of understanding and enhancing the positive development of all young people. The work of Professors Mary Arnold and Ryan Gagnon on the 4-H Thriving Model provides a creative and richly theoretically and empirically informed vision for promoting positive youth development (PYD) through integrating youth development research and practice. Their vision is an exemplar of how theoretically predicated and cutting-edge developmental science and the enactment of youth programs can be mutually informative. Drawing on the theory, research, and ideas for program design encompassed within the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance, which applies developmental scholarship that integrates research from multiple disciplines and underscores the malleability, agency, and specificity of mutually influential coactions between youth and their contexts, Professors Arnold and Gagnon illustrate the features of researchópractice integration that must be enacted for innovative progress in programs aimed at enhancing youth thriving. The compelling roadmap for promoting PYD through the integrations framed by the 4-H Thriving Model will advance youth development practice, developmental science theory and research and, most important, the lives of the diverse young people of our nation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura M. Cisneros ◽  
Jonathan Simmons ◽  
Todd Campbell ◽  
Nicole Freidenfelds ◽  
Chester Arnold ◽  
...  

Researchers and practitioners have identified numerous outcomes of place-based environmental action (PBEA) programs at both individual and community levels (e.g., promoting positive youth development, fostering science identity, building social capital, and contributing to environmental quality improvement). In many cases, the primary audience of PBEA programs are youth, with less attention given to lifelong learners or intergenerational (e.g., youth and adult) partnerships. However, there is a need for PBEA programs for lifelong learners as local conservation decisions in the United States are often carried out by volunteer boards and commissions, which often have little formal conservation training. Intergenerational PBEA programs can provide an opportunity to bring together, in the case of this study, the unique skills and knowledge of teens (e.g., tech-savvy) and adults (e.g., knowledgeable of local community issues) that can lead to innovative ways of addressing real world endeavors that are relevant to participants and their communities.This study describes a program model that offers structured learning opportunities that support intergenerational partnerships (teens and adults) as they contribute to community conservation efforts. We used a design-based research approach to develop and refine program design principles and communication pillars for the purpose of supporting successful teen-adult conservation projects, positive participant experiences, and science identity authoring. The principles and pillars drew on identity, cultural learning pathways, and community conservation research literature as well as previously collected participant interview data from our intergenerational PBEA program. We outline four design principles and four communication pillars that are critical to facilitate collaborative teen-adult environmental action efforts and serve dual functions of providing program guidance and participant support. The aim of these principles and pillars are to establish collaborative team partnership norms that resist traditional hierarchical teen-adult relationships. Further, the principles and pillars consider how partners can draw on their interests, experiences, and knowledge of community, and utilize these assets along with conservation science disciplinary practices to accomplish meaningful science pursuits; thus facilitating how they identify themselves as contributing to science endeavors. Exemplar data and literature that support each principle and pillar are provided, and future extensions of these principles are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Kathryn Seymour

AbstractThis article introduces a new strengths-based approach to youth development program practice developed in Queensland, Australia. This approach is encapsulated in a good practice framework, its six principles, their underlying indicators and examples of action. The framework is a wholly new synthesis of academic, youth and practitioner expertise, and demonstrates the complex ecological nature of youth programs and the bi-directional links between the diversity of staff and youth needs, and contributions made within the program environment. I introduce the framework by discussing each of the six principles, which focus on the themes of learning and development; leadership and decision making; an inclusive ethos; community service; partnerships and networking; and ethical promotion. Taken together, the principles presented here embody an innovative, comprehensive and comprehensible framework for volunteer and paid youth practitioners, service providers and youth studies scholars.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel T. L. Shek ◽  
Tak Yan Lee ◽  
Rachel C.F. Sun ◽  
Daniel W.M. Lung

The Tier 2 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) targets adolescents with greater psychosocial needs, and the related programs were designed and implemented by school social workers. After completion of the Tier 2 Program, 2,173 students in 52 schools responded to the Subjective Outcome Evaluation Form (Form C), assessing their views of the program, instructors, and perceived effectiveness of the program. Based on the consolidated reports submitted by the agencies to the funding body, the research team aggregated the consolidated data to form a “reconstructed” overall profile of the perceptions of the program participants. Four major types of program were identified, including programs based on the adventure-based counseling approach (N = 8), programs concentrated on volunteer training and services (N = 7), programs incorporating both adventure-based counseling and volunteer training elements (N = 30), and other programs with different foci (N = 7). Results showed that high proportions of the respondents had positive perceptions of the programs and the instructors, and roughly four-fifths of the respondents regarded the program as helpful to them. The present study provides support for the effectiveness of the Tier 2 Program of P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong for the experimental implementation phase.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia G. Morales Osegueda

Hispanics have become the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Within that population there are vast diversities of culture that vary not only by country of origin, but by the regions and ethnicities within those countries. Designing programs to attract the participants and meet the needs of Latinos and their families is essential to 4-H’s future outreach program success. King County Extension Youth Development 4-H program has developed a program that provides volunteerism training based on awareness of the community that youth and adult participants serve. Results suggest that volunteer training helps participants become more prepared. They develop the knowledge and skills needed for planning, implementing a program, and applying their individual talents as well as mentoring strengths. This article describes how newly skilled Latinos participating in volunteerism training demonstrated and practiced what they learned with responsibility and inspiration for children at an elementary school in SeaTac, Washington.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Lynne M. Borden ◽  
Michael Conn ◽  
Casey D. Mull ◽  
Michele Wilkens

Understanding the role of youth workers and promoting an accurate representation of these professionals and their work requires a focus on current research, practice, and policies that capture the challenges and opportunities of the youth development workforce. An overview of this special issue of the Journal of Youth Development examines efforts to support individual youth workers, strategies organizations use to prepare and assist youth workers, and system approaches to building the capacity of the workforce in key areas such as quality and social emotional learning, and concludes with an encapsulation of interviews with 10 key leaders nationwide. They identified the overarching task as one of identification of the elements that can make the field cohesive across the different settings and programs, while supporting youth in their growth through experiences that are rooted in the science of learning and development. Finally, this special issue offers the opportunity to better understand the youth workers, examine different types of professional development pathways, explore the role that systems can play in support of these workers, and reflect on the challenges and opportunities raised by key leaders in the profession.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Moroney

In “Moving From Risk to Hope: Count Us In,” the author describes the report entitled From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope released in January 2019 by the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. The report and related brief, Building Partnerships in Support of Where, When, and How Learning Happens offer recommendations for how the education sector can support social and emotional learning and development. This article offers a reflection on the Nation at Hope report recommendations for the youth development field and professionals. There are significant opportunities for the youth development field to partner with other sectors, intentionally support social and emotional learning, train professional staff on strategies to support learning and development, and research our efforts in ways that are accessible and foster practice. It is a critical and hopeful time for the youth development field to honor our history, employ the recommendations in the report, and build our youth development knowledge and practice in light of what we now know about how to optimally foster learning and development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 162-170
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Moroney

Arnold and Gagnon’s timely work on the 4-H Thriving Model is an excellent example of the application of developmental science in youth development practice. In their article, the authors describe how 4-H, an established youth development organization, updated the theory of change. Designing an actionable theory of change based on science is indeed a commendable effort for any youth-serving organization. However, the work does not stop there. The diverse 4-H system now has the ultimate challenge of adopting and implementing the principles presented in their theory of change. In this commentary, I discuss the often-overlooked components of implementation readiness: motivation, general capacity, and content-specific knowledge (R=MC2) in relation to the 4-H Thriving Model.  When staff are ready, they can succeed in aligning resources and coordinate professional learning for the adults, or implementers, to know and understand the theory of change and associated practices. Fostering learning and development to enact science-informed strategies, as Arnold and Gagnon have done in the 4-H Thriving Model, is critical to developing sound models of youth programming. However, to implement a model into practice, the real and human factors of implementation readiness are key to success.


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