Youth work courses
Strong youth programs need strong youth development professionals. We provide research-based training and resources for adults who work with and on behalf of Minnesota's young people. Our experienced faculty and staff train individuals, teams and organizations.
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3 to 6 hours of individual online learning.
Dilemmas in Youth Work: Self-guided online course
- Explore research on the dilemmas of youth work.
- Examine, discuss, and respond to dilemmas.
- Develop youth-centered strategies for addressing dilemmas in your own work that better meet the developmental needs of youth.
Youth Engagement Matters: Self guided online course
Explores a research framework, Rings of Engagement, which outlines four types of youth engagement and youth-adult partnerships.
Youth Work Matters: Self-guided online course
- Explore the foundational research and theories of positive youth development.
- Apply course content to your work with youth.
Foundational cohort courses adapted to 15-24 hours of interactive, facilitated online learning.
Leadership Matters: Facilitated online course
This online class explores supervision and leadership issues in youth work organizations. Online activities include synchronized group time and self-paced learning.
Youth Work Matters: Facilitated online course
Create resources and learn skills to help you work with young people. The content comes from a combination of real youth work experience and research-based material. Activities include both synchronized group time and individual learning.
Youth development brown bag webinars are free interactive online learning over the lunch hour on various youth development topics.
Driven to Discover: Fostering Authentic Inquiry with Youth through Citizen Science
Citizen science programs invite the public to participate in scientific research. Through these experiences, participants learn scientific data collection protocols and have opportunities to observe nature, which naturally leads to asking questions about the natural world.
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018
10:30 a.m. - 12 noon (Central time)
Activities to Build Strong Youth Leaders
Preparation is key to becoming an effective leader. How can we help youth develop leadership skills?
November 14, 2018
10:30 a.m.-12 noon (Central time)
Grow Youth Programs Middle Management Volunteers
Volunteers are critical to many youth and community programs. Middle management volunteers - those who direct other volunteers or assume primary responsibility for a specific part of a program - play an especially important role in growing the reach of an organization.
January 16, 2019
10:30 a.m.-12 noon (Central time)
STEM-tacular Science Activities!
Learn about easy, cheap, and exciting science experiments. Lindsey will demonstrate five experiments that use common household items and can be done in under 15 minutes. The science experiments are appropriate for youth of any age.
March 20, 2019
10:30 a.m.-12 noon (Central time)
UMN Extension staff discuss research, theory and best practices in youth development. Topics include:
- Youth programs
- Youth issues
- Volunteer development
- Ctizenship and leadership
- Program quality
- Program evaluation
- Cultural diversity
- Social and emotional learning
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Foundational, research-based face-to-face learning. Contact us to schedule one of these courses.
Culturally Responsive Youth Work Matters
Explore cultural identities and examine how they affect interactions with youth. Culturally responsive practice creates a sense of belonging and empowerment in young people.
Youth workers face challenging situations they are required to address in their daily work with young people. Dig into the sticky challenges and issues of youth work and examine various ways to respond to real-life problems in your program.
Professional development strategies for youth work practice
- Explore management and leadership in your program.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
This training suite will help you design programs to support SEL, respond to unexpected opportunities that involve SEL and apply resources and activities from our SEL toolkit.
A program model and curriculum designed to show young people that they are participants in a global society and to prepare them to thrive in culturally diverse settings.
Explore the Rings of Engagement model, a framework that outlines four types of youth engagement and youth-adult partnerships.
Create resources and learn skills to help you work with young people. The content comes from a combination of real youth work experience and research-based material.
We offer free public symposia and learning events that bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to discuss issues in the field of youth development. The goal is to bridge the latest research with implications for youth work practice, programs, policy and public education.
Our upcoming symposium series is dedicated to equity and youth development.
Builds sustainable programs that meet the unique needs of urban youth. Designed to help volunteers and program leaders create, strengthen and advance youth programs that occur during non-school hours.
Minnesota 4-H partners with schools, agencies, organizations, and volunteers to build sustainable leadership programs that meet the unique needs of urban youth. Designed to expose young people to the worlds of higher education and careers.
WeConnect is both a program model and a curriculum that helps young people see that they are participants in a global society. It prepares them to thrive in culturally-diverse settings. Developed for middle school-aged youth, but can be adapted for other age groups.
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Social and emotional learning (SEL) includes learning to be aware of and manage emotions, work well with others, and work hard when faced with challenges. Youth programs develop SEL skills by creating opportunities for young people to engage in real-world projects, work in teams, take on meaningful roles, face challenges, and experience the emotional ups and downs that come along the way.
This toolkit includes activities, templates and tools organized around four ways to help support staff and youth in SEL. It was developed to go along with the 3-hour training, Social and Emotional Learning in Practice and related issue briefs. It is designed primarily for those working with youth in middle school, but with small changes the activities can be used for other age groups too. See the Introduction for an overview of how the toolkit was made. It can be read from start to finish, but it is not meant to be used in order. Select activities that meet your needs and fit with your program design. Get the most out of it by taking the Readiness Inventory first. Your responses will help identify sections of the toolkit that will be most helpful.
Download the entire toolkit(PDF)
Learn more about this toolkit