Professional Development Training – Quality Coaching – Program Quality Assessment – Character Education and Social Emotional Learning – Lesson Planning – Team Building – Reflective Practice – Critical Friends Group Coaching and Facilitation – Developmental Asset Training
Curriculum Design and Lesson Panning
Plan-Do-Review – This training connects afterschool practitioners with best practice in experiential learning. It prepares educators how to transform any activity into a lesson that is active, goal oriented, and reflective. Out-of-School Time settings are suited perfectly to meet the needs of youth, be active and engaging, and . Learn how to make the most of your program time and enhance social-emotional learning and skill building in any activity (STEM, Homework Help, Project Based Enrichment, Arts, Recreation).
Quality Assessment
Instructional quality matters. What happens between the child and the adults who serve them can mean the difference between having a highly functioning program or one of low quality. All students deserve to be in a program that is high functioning and that meets there developmental needs.
Too often program leaders rely on what they think programs need to improve their quality. While this is rooted in the leaders experience and knowledge, it is still somewhat subjective.
Take a look at the following resources on quality assessment.
http://www.niost.org <http://www.niost.org>
http://www.cypq.org<http://www.cypq.org>
http://www.search-institute.org<http://www.search-institute.org>
Quality Coaching
A Quality Coach is a youth program professional who helps someone improve their program or the way they work with youth. This workshop focuses on helping staff improve through one-on-one consultation. The Quality Coaching method is based on the three main concepts of respect, observe, and support. The idea is to maximize productivity in the consultant/manager-staff relationship by starting with a foundation of respect, taking time to observe staff at the point of service and then supporting staff to develop professionally
Coaching vs. Supervision
This session will explore how practitioners can inspire greater levels of performance and accountability through modeling, observation and reflection activities. This session is designed to break down silos, barriers and cliques while promoting a culture of shared purpose and personal accountability. Additionally participants will explore issues of time management and taking ownership and personal responsibility for high levels of individual and team performance.
Understanding Your Role
Understanding your role gives you the chance to put your distinctive, authentic self to work. The more you put yourself in the service of your role, the more likely you are to be effective. This session is designed to foster a deeper understanding of individual roles within the organization, where they intersect with other roles and how they collectively contribute to the actualization of the mission and shared purpose. Exercises that promote universal understanding and highlight opportunities for cooperation and collaboration will be conducted. Additionally, using your role and personal influence to problem solve and take initiative will be explored.
Critical Friends Group Coach and Facilitator
A Critical Friends Group® community is a particular variety of Professional Learning Community (PLC), and Critical Friends Group® is a registered trademark of the NSRF® organization. CFG™ communities consist of 5-12 members who commit to improving their practice through collaborative learning and structured interactions (protocols), and meet at least once a month for about two hours.
Many general PLCs focus on standards, with the goal of students performing well on standardized tests. Educators may come home from conferences and workshops excited about creating PLCs, but quickly realize they weren’t given all the tools to accomplish the goals they espouse.
NSRF® Critical Friends Group® Coaches Training will teach you how to create an environment of trust, how to give and receive feedback most effectively, and how to use our protocols and activities to help students — and teachers — create a culture of excellence.
CFG work can do a lot for your school:
- honor and prioritize time for deep reflection,
- develop critical problem-solving,
- build trust between colleagues,
- reduce teacher and administrator isolation,
- reveal solutions to complex dilemmas,
- foster equity,
- change school culture,
- model and build 21st Century Skills
- … and much more!
Most of all, CFG communities deeply support you and your colleagues working together to improve everyone’s work and that of your students.
The Developmental Assets®
The Developmental Assets® are 40 research-based, positive qualities that influence young people’s development, helping them become caring, responsible, and productive adults. Based in youth development, resiliency, and prevention research, the Developmental Assets framework has proven to be effective and has become the most widely used approach to positive youth development in the United States and, increasingly, around the world. The framework has been adapted to be developmentally relevant from early childhood through adolescence.
Essentials of Asset Building
Everyone’s an Asset Builder introduces the Developmental Assets framework and the powerful role of individual asset builders in the lives of youth. This workshop will help participants:
* identify the characteristics of effective asset builders and their own personal strengths and challenges
* understand “circles of influence” and identify those circles in which there is potential for asset building
* and make and share a personal commitment to asset-building action
* discuss how the assets relate to other positive youth development efforts
* develop engaging presentation strategies to meet the unique needs of any audience
* and effectively use relevant presentation materials
The Developmental Assets®
ADVANCING YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
What is Youth Development?
Youth Development is the process by which all young people seek ways to meet their basic physical and social needs, and build the competencies necessary to succeed in adolescence and adulthood.
Youth Development Principles
All young people will seek to meet their fundamental needs. If we do not provide young people with the necessary opportunities and supports, they will go elsewhere to meet their needs. The goal is not to fix youth, but to develop them and challenge them to achieve their highest potential. Caring adults do not simply show affection for young people; they (1) challenge youth to achieve their potential, and (2) provide youth with a full range of supports necessary to succeed.
The Advancing Youth Development training program addresses these key youth development components:
Developmental Youth Outcomes
What are the goals for young people? How do we support them in reaching those goals? What is the youth development approach?
Cultural Assumptions
How and what are the barriers that “we adults” bring to our work with youth? How can we practice caring behaviors?
Core Competencies of Youth Workers
What are the attributes, skills, and knowledge of an exemplary youth worker?
Best Practices
What are the supports and opportunities that youth need for development?
Youth Participation
What are the levels of youth participation? How do we promote the meaningful participation of every youth?
Practice, Review & Celebration
How do we use what we have learned to increase our effectiveness with youth?
Youth Work Methods
Introduction to the Active Participatory Approach – Youth programs can be optimized for youth needs, motivation, and engagement. The Active-Participatory Approach to youth work was designed to address these goals. This youth-centered approach is the foundation for the Youth Work Methods Series.
Active Learning – Do you know the difference between active learning and “hands-on” learning? Giving youth materials is just the beginning. This interactive workshop introduces the “ingredients” of active learning, explains the role that active learning plays in the experiential learning cycle, and helps participants create more powerful learning opportunities for youth.
Youth Voice – Are you providing young people with authentic, meaningful choices throughout your program? Does your program reflect the input of the youth involved? Research shows that quality programs incorporate youth input at both activity and organizational levels. This workshop will emphasize the importance of offering real choices and meaningful participation to youth, and nurturing youth leadership. This interactive workshop is focused on providing meaningful choice within activities and opportunities for youth input within the youth program itself.
Planning and Reflection – Are you engaging youth in the critical life skills of planning and reflection? Are you ready to be more intentional about including planning and reflection strategies into your daily routine and activities but not sure where to start? This interactive workshop will introduce participants to powerful and easy to use methods that promote youth engagement in planning, implementing, and evaluating activities and projects.
Building Community – Do you know what it takes to build an emotionally and physically safe space for youth? Building an emotionally safe community of peers and adults is essential for youth to learn and develop as individuals. This interactive workshop will introduce participants to a variety of activities designed to support the community building process.
Cooperative Learning – Do the youth in your program have opportunities to work together in groups, teaching and learning from each other? Cooperative learning is an excellent way to nurture youth leadership, build community, and keep things fun. This interactive workshop will equip participants with grouping strategies and ways to think about building cooperative learning into any program offering.
Ask-Listen-Encourage – Do you communicate with youth in a way that makes them feel supported and heard? This interactive workshop introduces various communication techniques that help you build more supportive, youth-centered relationships. Participants will learn how to ask more effective questions, to listen actively to youth, and offer youth encouragement rather than praise.
Reframing Conflict – What role do you play in conflict situations with the youth in your program? Do you know how to turn a conflict situation into an opportunity for growth? This interactive workshop introduces participants to the High/Scope step-by-step model for reframing conflict as well as general principles of conflict resolution.
Structure and Clear Limits – How do you prevent chaos in a youth environment without stifling youth’s positive energy? Youth need structure and clear limits in order to feel safe. This interactive workshop helps participants analyze the level of structure in their programs and practice identifying and maintaining clear limits.
Homework Help – This course focuses on making homework help time effective by helping youth get organized, by providing an atmosphere that helps youth focus on their work, and by building a supportive relationship with youth. These elements help participants reconsider Homework Help as an opportunity to build relationships and nurture positive growth, beyond getting the work done.
Click here to download a description of the Youth Work Methods Workshop Series.*<http://www.cypq.org/sites/cypq.org/files/Methods%20Descriptions%202012.pdf>
SEL Methods
The SEL Methods align with the SEAD Commission’s Evidence Base for How Learning Happens, by focusing across the emotional, social, and cognitive skills and competencies, and by recognizing that “learning and development happen over time…in safe and relationship-based learning environments.”
• The Essentials of SEL Method provides a foundation to The Weikart Center’s SEL
approach. While appropriate for front line staff, this Method can also
be utilized to onboard a wide range of stakeholders to the SEL work your network will undertake.
• Three Foundations & Self Awareness (FASA) Methods build staff’s foundational knowledge and self-awareness in cognitive, social, and emotional development. Each FASA serves as a prerequisite for two of the SEL Skills Methods.
• Six SEL Skills Methods will support staff skill-development in support of practices at the point of service that support youth in building social, emotional, and cognitive skills. There will be two workshops each focused on social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Youth Development Training Collaborative 
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