Volunteer Competencies - Positive Youth Development

Volunteers demonstrate the ability to intentionally and appropriately apply the principles and best practices that result in the positive development of youth.

Staff Development Tools:

• Essential Elements of Positive Youth Development Power Point Presentation by Steve McKinley, Volunteer Leadership Specialist, Purdue University(42 slides, 3.79 MB) Power Point Presentation on youth development, and detailed description of the basic needs of youth.
• Strengthening Positive Youth Development Environments: Research-Based Frameworks for Extension Educators This resource provides practical research, planning, assessment and practice tools on positive youth development for Extension educators and others working in community settings. The Framework includes presentations, resource guides, self-assessment tools, re-printable fact sheets for newsletters and training, and other tools. This resource was developed by Wisconsin.

Volunteer Training Materials:

• Positive Youth Development (PYD) Lesson Plans Illinois 4-H Youth Development has developed a series of fact sheets and lesson plans covering the essential elements of positive youth development. The lesson plans have been designed for use in a 4-H club/group setting to strengthen each of the eight critical elements. Each lesson plan includes the following core sections: Background information to define the element. Assessment questions, created to help members and leaders identify the existence or absence of the element. Roll Call Suggestions that can be used in the month when the lesson is presented. Activities that can be used in the club/group setting to emphasize and strengthen the element. Lessons and accompanying worksheets are included. One page handouts for each of the essential elements are ready for 4-H Club distribution. Do check out the web link above. The materials below are the fact sheets and training materials to support this work.
  • Introduction to BIG-M Fact Sheet (1 page, 43 KB) The BIG-M is an acronym for Belonging, Independence, Generosity, Mastery
  • PYD BIG-M Four Quadrant Handout (1 page, 118 KB)
  • Belonging Fact Sheet (2 pages, 88 KB)
  • Generosity Fact Sheet (2 pages, 95 KB)
  • Independence Fact Sheet (2 pages, 84 KB)
  • Mastery Fact Sheet (2 pages, 117 KB)
  • ILLINOIS PYD BIG-M Staff Training Manual (39 pages, 1 MB)
  • ILLINOIS PYD BIG-M Volunteer Training Manual (32 pages, 721 KB)
    • Developmentally Speaking Handout (2 pages, 20KB)
    • Experiential Learning Activity 4-H Project Plan (1 page, 23 KB)
    • PYD BIG-M Unit Staff Evaluation Report Fill In (1 page, 165 KB)
    • Volunteer Assessment (1 page, 157 KB)
• Indiana Volunteer Training Materials

Resources From Outside North Central Region:

• National 4-H Essential Elements Program Planning Tool The goal of this on-line tool is to help 4-H volunteers and staff to assess and improve their current ability to create with young people opportunities for positive youth development. 4-H offers youth supervised , a sense of with a positive group, a spirit of toward others and a wide variety of opportunities to life challenges.

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