Positive Youth Development Resources

Positive youth development (PYD) is not a specific curriculum but a model that can be used to enhance any youth-serving program. Youth-serving professionals should follow eight key practices to effectively incorporate PYD into their programs.

#1: Protect physical and psychological safety

A program can provide safe facilities and encourage healthy practices that increase safe peer group interaction and decrease unsafe or confrontational peer interactions.

Learn more about providing safe and secure environments that enable youth to thrive

• Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Safe Supportive Environments | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Physical and Psychological Safety Fact Sheet | UMN Reach Lab
• Physical Safety | The National Center on Safe Supporting Learning Environments

#2: Create the appropriate structure

This practice includes selecting activities and practices that match where youth are developmentally. Additionally, programs can work with youth to set clear and consistent rules and expectations, and age-appropriate monitoring.

Learn more about the structures that create an intentional and consistent youth-serving program

• Environment | National Center for Safe Supportive Learning Environments
• The 4-H Learning Experience | Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Appropriate Structure Fact Sheet | UMN Reach Lab

#3: Build supportive relationships

Caring relationships offer social support, use positive communication, and provide supportive guidance. These relationships include the connections between youth and adults as well as among young people.

Learn more about the concrete steps that families, professionals, and communities can take to promote connectedness among youth

• School Connectedness Helps Students Thrive | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Aftercare: Staying in Touch with Youth After They Have Left the System Toolkit | Family and Youth Services Bureau
• A Practitioner’s Resource Guide: Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

#4: Offer opportunities to belong

Apart from providing opportunities for the meaningful inclusion of all youth, programs can create opportunities for youth to explore their identities and support cultural and bicultural competence.

Learn more about offering opportunities to belong to specific groups of youth

• Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Embracing a “Youth Welfare” System: A Guide to Capacity Building | Children’s Bureau
• 4-H Access, Equity and Opportunity | Department of Agriculture
• A Transition Guide to Postsecondary Education and Employment For Students and Youth With Disabilities | Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
• Community Colleges | Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy

#5: Encourage positive social norms

Positive social norms include behaviors and values that promote respect. Programs can encourage these norms by setting expectations and modeling behaviors.

Learn more about how to foster pro-social behaviors in adolescence

• Model Programs Guide: Youth Development | Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Preparing Youth to Thrive: Methodology and Findings from the Social Emotional Learning Challenge | Forum for Youth Investment
• How to Prevent Bullying | StopBullying.gov
• Positive Social Norms Fact Sheet | UMN Reach Lab

#6: Mentor, build efficacy, and offer opportunities to make a difference

A program can place youth in leadership roles and encourage youth choice to encourage youth to achieve meaningful change in their community.

Learn more about how to inspire and empower youth to make a difference in their lives and the world around them

• Serve: Fit Finder | AmeriCorps
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – Resources for the Supervision of Peer Workers | 
• Mentoring | Youth.gov
• Opportunities | Youth Engaged 4 Change

#7: Provide opportunities for skill-building

Allowing opportunities for practice and connecting content to goals can help adolescents learn a range of skills that prepare them to make positive and informed decisions that affect their health, educational and career opportunities, and other aspects of their lives.

Learn more about specific skills that can benefit adolescents now and in the future

• Managing Stress | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Financial Resources and Information for Students and Young Americans | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Get a Job, Skill, or Trade | Department of Education
• Choosing a College or Career School | Federal Student Aid
• Job Corps – Career Development Services for Students | 

#8: Integrate across family, school, and community efforts

PYD is an approach for everyone. Program can emphasize coordination and collaboration with family, school, and community partners to strengthen their efforts.

Learn about ways to engage families and the broader community

• Parent Engagement in Schools | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Family and Community Engagement | Department of Education
• Meaningful Family Engagement | Youth.gov