Reflect: Our Overview

Youth workers need a large number of skills in order to do their jobs effectively. It is imperative that universities, colleges, training intermediaries, and employers work together with frontline staff to tackle the issue of creating a coordinated network of support that capitalizes on the organic nature of skill development while also moving from the field of youth development to the profession of youth development.

Listen: What We've Heard from Youth Workers

"There’s a perception that anyone can be a youth worker, though not everyone wants to be; there’s not a lot of understanding behind what youth development is, what the framework is."My daughter works at Starbucks and makes almost as much as [I am]. [My] other daughter makes more at Costco." - Youth Worker: Collective Feasibility Study, 2007

Data from 2008 Youth Worker Survey:

Co-sponsored skill-specific workshops where experts come in to talk about recent research in Youth Development, tools of the trade, how to evaluate your program, etc.

• 65.3% of respondents identified this event or activity as priority for the Youth Worker: Collective
• 49.0% of respondents identified this event or activity as important for the field of youth development
• 47.8% of respondents said they would participate in these activities or events

A Brown Bag Series whose purpose is to facilitate peer exchange of best practices, templates, and other ideas and lessons from the field

• 56.7% of respondents identified this event or activity as priority for the Youth Worker: Collective
• 32.0% of respondents identified this event or activity as important for the field of youth development
• 45.0% of respondents said they would participate in these activities or events

Supporting large-scale events or summits that bring hundreds of youth workers together

• 37.3% of respondents identified this event or activity as priority for the Youth Worker: Collective
• 28.8% of respondents identified this event or activity as important for the field of youth development
• 28.5% of respondents said they would participate in these activities or events

Inquire: Others' that Shape Our Growth

Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD)'s purpose is to shape a world where all young people thrive supported by communities that help them develop their full potential. CNYD is where the Youth Worker: Collective started. CNYD's coordination in our formative years empowered us to grow and develop as a collaborative. Their continued support has provided us opportunities to meet youth workers from across the nation. 

California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC) works to support and advance afterschool and out-of-school time programs and providers throughout California. CalSAC was one of our early supporters and connected us to many local and state-wide youth workers in the fields of after-school, school-age care, and childcare. Their assistance helped establish our niche in providing worker-to-worker technical assistance.

San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) was created in 1989 and is the arm within city government focused exclusively on ensuring that young people—ages 0 through 17—become healthy, productive, and valued community members. DCYF provides the core of our current funding and enabled us to hire our current staff. This funding sparked and continues to spark our current collaborations in San Francisco and beyond.  

The Walter and Evelyn Haas Jr. Fund seeks to fulfill our founders' vision of a just and caring society where all people are able to live, work and raise their families with dignity. The Haas Jr. Fund provided the funding that lead to the creation of our Feasibility Study. This study was created by youth workers across the Bay Area and has shaped much of our development. It directly led to the annual Youth Worker Survey, and guides our Continuous Improvement structure.

Next Generation Youth Work Coalition brings together individuals and organizations dedicated to developing a strong,diverse after-school and youth development workforce that is stable,prepared,supported and committed to the well-being and empowerment of children and youth. We got involved with what would become the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition in November 2004. Their initial Wingspread Conference was pivotal in our conception of our peer model and solidified the need for our voice. 

Connect: How We Are Exploring this Connection

Free Resources:

Youth Worker Brown Bags offer youth workers an opportunity to explore intersections that affect our work and our youth as well as provide networking, personal, and professional development. To learn more and get involved, click here.

The Afterschool for All Technical Assistance Collaborative (AFA TAC), a partnership between the California School-Age Consortium, the Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD), SFUSD ExCEL After School Programs, Sports 4 Kids,  San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF), and us, works collaboratively to create a coordinated city-wide model of technical assistance to support afterschool programs and develop a workforce of prepared, committed, stable, and supported professionals. Learn more by clicking here.

Community Conversations - Collaborative Frontline Youth Worker Training Pilot Youth Worker: Collective, as a part of AFATAC, is working through our Community Conversations to create collaboration across systems to train the current and next generation of frontline youth workers. Learn more by clicking here.

We Are Youth Workers: Exhibition and Happy Hour | June 10, 2009 | 3pm to 8pm

We Are Youth Workers: Networking Day | June 11, 2009 | 10am to 4pm

Fee-For-Service Offerings:

Peer Networking Sessions provide participants an opportunity to connect and explore a specific topic with each other in an equal exchange (2-hour session minimum). Working together, we help clients identify a topic they want to know more about and provide a two hour session that brings out the brightest and best ideas of the participants. 

Community Conversations bring together stakeholders to answer organizational questions through appreciative inquiry resulting in a collaborative action plan (3-month commitment minimum).  The goal of Community Conversations is to work together, connect resources, and empower collective accountability to help our client achieve community-centered results.

Custom Youth Work Training Events bring the best of Youth Worker: Collective’s peer-education model to build the skills and competencies of youth workers in a team environment (4-hour training minimum). We will work with you to design custom training events that meet your workers developmental needs. We build on our community connections to bring you the best and most up-to-date education possible using our innovative Youth Worker: Collective Process and peer model. 

Professional Development Coaching is focused one-on-one support that refines and hones youth workers current knowledge and skills (2-hour session minimum). Additionally, we make finding resources easy. Through this process, we empower clients to continue developing their skills and explore new ideas after we leave. 

Dream: What We Want to See in the World

We dream of youth workers that are professional and collective. We dream of equitable, accessible to relevant educational and professional development opportunities, especially those led by peers.

Act: What We Are Accomplishing This Year

• Develop and plan ten Youth Worker Brown Bags - IN PROGRESS. Get involved here.
• Support AFATAC: Mentoring Initiative, Learning Circles, Outreach/Communications, Competencies and Training for Frontline Staff (including Community Conversations), Event Planning, AFA Workforce Group, Advisory Committee, and Steering Committee  - IN PROGRESS
• “What can Obama’s presidency do for youth worker development?” Campaign -IN PROGRESS
• Create a plan for expanding the website to include more social networking and professional development capabilities  - IN PROGRESS
• Create video whose purpose is to introduce youth work as a profession to be used in career vocational education classes - IN PROGRESS
• Create and implement an Introduction to Youth Work Internship for 6 to 10 youth enrolled in SFUSD’s Career Vocational Education course -IN PROGRESS
• Create and distribute a bi-monthly e-Newsletter to youth workers across the Bay Area - IN PROGRESS

Get Involved!

Get involved NOW by becoming a Sponsor, Collaborator, or Supporter. Learn more by clicking here!

Have other ideas or questions? Email professional@Youth Worker: Collective.org to get learn more and get involved.