Youth work courses
Strong youth programs need strong youth development professionals. We offer 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. Training is based on research into effective youth programs and our own experience running the Minnesota 4-H program.
We have courses for early-career youth workers to program leaders on a broad range of topics.
Ways to learn about youth development
Foundational, research-based face-to-face learning. Contact us to schedule one of these courses.
Building Brains: ACEs, Resiliency and Brain Architecture
This training will introduce participants to the concepts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and resiliency, as well as provide participants with a better understanding of why positive youth development programs are essential for the building of strong youth and communities.
Communicating impact with financial stakeholders
This session will provide tools to help you explain program impact in compelling ways. Presenters will share tips for developing audience-focused content and grounding inspiring stories in evaluation data.
Core Components of Quality STEM
This training will improve the quality of your STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs, lessons and activities by helping you to identify, incorporate and facilitate the core components of science and engineering processes.
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.
Dilemmas in Youth Work
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.
Engaged learning
Participants explore how young people learn, what causes them to disengage from learning, and specific strategies for ensuring that the learning environment and the teaching itself is effective and engaging.
Essential elements of cross-age teaching
Discover the benefits of having teens as teachers. Learn the essential elements needed to create an impactful learning environment for the teens, their younger peers and the adult liaison.
Grow youth programs with middle management volunteers
Volunteers are critical to many youth-serving organizations. Middle-management volunteers direct other volunteers or assume primary responsibility for a specific part of a program. Learn how to cultivate volunteers to serve in these important roles.
Strengthening Youth Work Supervision
Professional development strategies for youth work practice: Explore management and leadership in your program and gain internal professional development strategies targeted to youth work practice.
Leading teams: To team or not to team
Is it always better to work in teams? What gets in the way of productive teams? Working in teams can be beneficial, however may also have some drawbacks. Learn key elements to explore when launching and building effective teams.
Program planning
Different from lesson or event planning, program planning takes a big-picture look at the youth needs and assets of a community to make decisions about how a youth program can address those needs.
Reframing conflict
Shift to a positive youth development approach to behavior management. Learn both how to prevent many behavior issues and strategies for when things don't go as planned.
Sharing the stage: The youth and adult partnership dance
Explore best practices to unite youth leaders and their adult counterparts in shared leadership of events, committee work, and organizational operations.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) suite
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.
WeConnect
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.
Youth as change agents
Discover how to develop and grow a youth leadership program through youth voice and shared power so youth leaders thrive. The program model is the Minnesota 4-H Ambassador program.
Youth Engagement Matters
Explore the Rings of Engagement model, a framework that outlines four types of youth engagement and youth-adult partnerships.
Youth equity learning series
In this series of stand-alone workshops, youth workers and young people learn how to address inequities at the programmatic, organizational and institutional levels.
Youth Work Matters
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.
4-H Youth Teaching Youth
Understand the nuts and bolts of cross-age teaching best practices, research, and benefits, from identifying partners to teen recruitment and training.
Foundational cohort courses adapted to 15-24 hours of interactive, facilitated online learning.
Strengthening Youth Work Supervision: 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.
2 to 3 hours of individual online learning.
Dilemmas in Youth Work: Self-guided online course
Explore research on the dilemmas of youth work, and use real scenarios to craft youth-centered responses that address multiple considerations and ethical principles.
Social and emotional learning + wellbeing
This self-guided course introduces a flexible set of tools, templates and activities from our SEL toolkit that can be used with staff and youth to increase intentional practices that support social and emotional learning and wellbeing.
Youth Work Matters: Self-guided online course
Explore the foundational research and theories of positive youth development and apply course content to your work with youth.
Youth development webinars
Free interactive online learning over the lunch hour on various youth development topics.
See all upcoming youth development webinars.
Youth Development Insight blog
Advice and opinions from our faculty on current events and issues.
Youth Development Podcast
Our faculty discuss research, theory and best practices.
Build a stronger program
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 equity learning series
In this series of stand-alone workshops, youth workers and young people learn how to address inequities at the programmatic, organizational and institutional levels.
Engaged learning
Participants explore how young people learn, what causes them to disengage from learning, and specific strategies for ensuring that the learning environment and the teaching itself is effective and engaging.
Reframing conflict
Shift to a positive youth development approach to behavior management. Learn both how to prevent many behavior issues and strategies for when things don't go as planned.
Youth Work Matters
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.
Youth Work Matters: Self-guided online course
Explore the foundational research and theories of positive youth development and apply course content to your work with youth.
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.
Communicating impact with financial stakeholders
This session will provide tools to help you explain program impact in compelling ways. Presenters will share tips for developing audience-focused content and grounding inspiring stories in evaluation data.
Intentional program design
While high quality programs have a positive impact on youth, poor quality programs can actually do harm. Learn what goes on inside quality programs to intentionality influence positive outcomes.
Program planning
Different from lesson or event planning, program planning takes a big-picture look at the youth needs and assets of a community to make decisions about how a youth program can address those needs.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) suite
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.
Essential elements of cross-age teaching
Discover the benefits of having teens as teachers. Learn the essential elements needed to create an impactful learning environment for the teens, their younger peers and the adult liaison.
Sharing the stage: The youth and adult partnership dance
Explore best practices to unite youth leaders and their adult counterparts in shared leadership of events, committee work, and organizational operations.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) suite
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.
WeConnect
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.
Youth as change agents
Discover how to develop and grow a youth leadership program through youth voice and shared power so youth leaders thrive. The program model is the Minnesota 4-H Ambassador program.
Youth Engagement Matters
Explore the Rings of Engagement model, a framework that outlines four types of youth engagement and youth-adult partnerships.
4-H Youth Teaching Youth
Understand the nuts and bolts of cross-age teaching best practices, research, and benefits, from identifying partners to teen recruitment and training.
Dilemmas in Youth Work
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.
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.
Grow youth programs with middle management volunteers
Volunteers are critical to many youth-serving organizations. Middle-management volunteers direct other volunteers or assume primary responsibility for a specific part of a program. Learn how to cultivate volunteers to serve in these important roles.
Strengthening Youth Work Supervision
Professional development strategies for youth work practice: Explore management and leadership in your program and gain internal professional development strategies targeted to youth work practice.
Strengthening Youth Work Supervision: The online course
This online class explores supervision and leadership issues in youth work organizations. Online activities include synchronized group time and self-paced learning.
Leading teams: To team or not to team
Is it always better to work in teams? What gets in the way of productive teams? Working in teams can be beneficial, however may also have some drawbacks. Learn key elements to explore when launching and building effective teams.
Core components of quality STEM
This training will improve the quality of your STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs, lessons and activities by helping you to identify, incorporate and facilitate the core components of science and engineering processes.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) suite
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.