Staff/Youth Training Detailed Program Information

Staff Full Day or Half Day Programs*
*All workshops are available as a 2 or 4 hour seminar.

• How to sell a Summer Jobs Program as something more than a paycheck.
• Using a Summer Jobs Program as an incentive to increase year-round program participation.
• It's not only about public sector jobs. How to build quality work-sites in the private sector.
• Examine strategies to promote academic and social skills enrichment.
• Using peers to promote educational and workforce achievement in your summer program.
• Evaluation of previous summer jobs programs: What Works/What Doesn't.
• Who you hire; limits who you fire (finding and choosing the right staff).

• Unit 1: Your Summer Job as a Pathway to Future Economic Opportunity
• Unit 2: Working Effectively with Your Summer Work Experience Supervisor
• Unit 3: Using Summer Work Experience to Build Opportunity Networks
• Unit 4: Summer Work Time and Attendance Strategies for Future Economic Success
• ...and more

Traditional youth development strategies are not enough to capture and sustain youth program participation. Clear and substantiated evidence must exist to illustrate a Program's success, both visibly and articulated, in engaging community youth in youth culturally relevant activities. It’s insufficient to merely point out the services offered. Young adults are not solely interested in services and offerings. Far too often they have been disappointed by false promises. Many youth are simply impressed when their peers are actively and genuinely engaged in some form of developmental activity. When asked, “What program activity would your students say they enjoy spending the most time in and why?” The majority of Program staff are unable to answer the question. The demonstration of “evidence of engagement” needs to be real for all area youth.

Developing a Youth Engagement System requires careful planning, execution, and a continuous system of refinement, documentation and evaluation. In this workshop, YDRF engages participants in an examination of the six necessary steps to build a solid youth engagement system.

In depth research has proven that traditional youth development strategies are not enough to capture and sustain youth program participation. Many youth programs are dying on the vine, virtually living on life support. The problem is that young people, disinterested by these antiquated methods, are pulling the plug. The alternative to non-involvement in these programs is a generation of lost youth who are deprived of the opportunity to be an effective and productive part of their communities. After working on-site at some of the toughest schools and youth programs, Edward has developed a unique strategy for connecting with and motivating hard-to-reach students. His methods are sound and proven effective, leaving youth with a more energized outlook on their future.

Attendees leave Engaging Hard to Engage Students able to:

• Understand youth cultural competence and how it is best used to engage youth.
• Move from a “Word of Mouth” model to an “Evidence of Engagement.”
• Learn the 6 Connecting Points for out of school youth.

• Conferences and summits for school leaders with hard-to-reach student populations.
• In-services and professional development programs focused on best practices for serving hard-to-reach students.
• Grant funded initiatives designed to help hard-to-reach students.

There is a growing disconnect between the average youth service professional and the young people they serve. In this workshop, YDRF will introduce youth service professional to the six steps to connecting with and engaging youth. By the end of this session, participants will walk away with powerful tools to increase their efficacy with youth populations while maintaining professional demeanor and program rigor.

Connecting Staff and Youth is ideal for:

• Conferences and summits for school leaders with hard-to-reach student populations.
• In-services and professional development programs focused on best practices for serving hard-to-reach students.
• Grant funded initiatives designed to help hard-to-reach students.

Are you tired of paying youth to learn or prepare for work? Let the YDRF team help you and you staff explore the complicated issue on incentives. Take a look at some innovative incentive programs that involve the use of “intrinsic” as well as “extrinsic” motivators to learn. The YDRF staff will help your organization develop a tailored “intrinsic” motivating program for your agency.

• Conferences and summits for school leaders with hard-to-reach student populations.
• In-services and professional development programs focused on best practices for serving hard-to-reach students.
• Grant funded initiatives designed to help hard-to-reach students.

This interactive and upbeat workshop will provide cutting-edge solutions to recruitment and marketing efforts for the hard to find, out-of-school youth population. Gain valuable insight on effective and proven methods of youth engagement, program promoting, advertisement, and PR. Learn helpful tips on determining your target demographics, maximizing your advertising dollars, and developing business partnerships to ensure recruitment success.

• Programs struggling to recruit youth.
• New Programs interested in avoiding the recruitment problem
• Program funders and administrators interested in designing programs Conferences and summits for school leaders with hard-to-reach student populations.
• In-services and professional development programs focused on best practices for serving hard-to-reach students.
• Grant funded initiatives designed to help hard-to-reach students.

Research has shown that youth engaged in youth leadership activities show more progress in terms of increased labor force participation, increased academic and social skills, and commitment to positive growth and development than youth only engaged in work preparation activities. In this training, participants will learn how to effectively utilize youth in the classroom and community to increase program outcomes.

For the most part, current youth popular culture has had a limiting and destructive impact on the future economic life chances of the youth served in programs across the U.S. To turn this tide around, YDRF developed a strategy to use the current preferences of youth participants to emphasize educational and workforce outcomes. In this training, youth service providers learn how to integrate youth popular culture with current program teaching strategies to improve educational and workforce outcomes for youth and the programs.

While the number one influence on youth is peers, very little program attention has been paid to its use as a positive force to promote educational and workforce outcomes. In this training, participants will focus on innovative, easy to implement peer influence practices and activities to promote educational and workforce achievement. Programs learn how to use this very important existing resource to promote attendance, achievement and commitment to long term growth and development.

Perhaps the least understood and most successful program strategy that has led to successful youth development has been post program support services. Unfortunately, the majority of program services cease their efforts once the formal program is over. In this training, participants examine post program strategies used by programs across the country. Participants discuss the implications of providing post program services and the opportunity it provides for improved youth services. Participants also develop a post- placement support plan for youth in their program.

Access and connections to labor markets are extremely important for youth service providers. Their ability to provide young people with a diverse set of employment experiences helps to develop the credibility of a program. From unpaid to paid work experiences or apprenticeships to entrepreneurships - finding a way to connect the young person to the labor force is extremely important. Most young people will experiment with a series of jobs before they settle down. As a result, it is instrumental to provide a young person with various work opportunities. In this way, work should be viewed as a developmental tool, not an end in itself. This training helps participants to explore the myriad of labor market connections that can be provided to youth at different levels of employability.

This one-day seminar is designed to introduce youth service professionals, policy makers, and advocates into the innovative pathway of Youth Culture Competence (YCC) and provide insight into how YCC can help programs to effectively recruit, retain, and engage young people. During the seminar, participants will conduct a complete YCC assessment of their organization. The information generated by the self-assessment will be used to design a tailored program improvement plan where participants will use the three main elements of YCC: Youth Involvement; Youth Popular Culture; and Positive Peer Influence to improve program performance. In addition, participants will learn the basics of how to harness YCC to improve recruitment, retention, and follow-up efforts.

This instructional program offers attendees the opportunity to evaluate what necessary steps must be taken to get America’s youth back on track with education and labor force participation. The message is dynamic, and is delivered in a style that many have described as “life changing.” Edward reveals the skills necessary for organizations and individuals interested in promoting the importance of education and work.

• Develop a new methodology for addressing anti-achievement actions, beliefs and values.
• Identify and address the “forces” that limit the future economic opportunities of youth and young adults.
• Create a school or workplace culture of achievement.
• Responsibly use the power of youth popular culture.
• Understand the importance of involving youth.

• Education conferences.
• Youth Development Conferences.
• Parent associations
• Employers

Staff Two Day Programs

1. YCC Two-Day Youth Cultural Competence (YCC) Institute The YCC Institute training is designed specifically for youth programs and includes a needs assessment, training objectives and outcomes tailored to the sites’ strengths and weaknesses in serving youth. Front line staff, educational and vocational instructors and counselors will learn to utilize youth popular culture, peer culture, and YDRF’s learner-centered belief model to create impacting and results-driven change. This training is enhanced by testimonies and concrete evidence from the field that demonstrate how programs across the country are utilizing YCC to connect youth with positive developmental outcomes and successfully address the 10 required elements of service as laid out in the Workforce Investment Act.

2. Effective Youth Engagement Project: E-YEP
E-YEP is more than a two day seminar. At YDRF, we are well known for conducting powerful presentations on youth engagement. We are continually the highest ranked presenter at conferences and workshops. However, all of our attendees call for one thing: WE NEED MORE!  The seminar is just the introduction; we all know the real change comes in the day-to-day work. The Effective Youth Engagement Project includes six months of on-line coaching (and site visits at an extra cost) as our way to provide programs with the support, assistance and coaching needed to make a radical difference in recruitment and retention efforts.

Every month, through our on-line coaching platform at www.reachallyouth.com, YDRF focuses on a different topic relating to engagement and retention. Programs are challenged to take action to increase engagement ability. In addition, programs are held accountable for the implementation of activities designed to assist in increasing levels of engagement.  Every month on a group call, YDRF staff receives input from programs about progress and the challenges faced. 

YCC is the under girding philosophy of the Effective Youth Engagement Project. It is the idea of creating recruitment and engagement strategies that: meet the interests of targeted groups; are executed by well-trained staff and peer support workers (PSWs); and consists of engaging activities designed to promote the importance of program completion measures, education, and workforce attachment.

In the Effective Youth Engagement Project, we will learn how to implement the 6 steps to Effective Program Engagement: 

Step 1: Developing Youth Culturally Competent Recruitment Messages
Step 2: Effectively Delivering Youth Culturally Competent Messages to Target Groups
Step 3: Getting Target Groups Through Program Doors
Step 4: Keeping Target Groups Engaged
Step 5: Fail Proof Follow-Up Strategies
Step 6: Maintaining the Process

The Logistics

-Exclusivity
Due to the intense nature of this service and the required commitment involved by both parties, YDRF is only making this service available to staff of the sponsoring organization. No other agency or entity is permitted to attend the event. In the case, that another agency is interested in participation, additional fees are necessary.

-Youth Involvement
The ideal E-YEP seminar will have one organization represented with total attendance of no more than 50 individuals.  Of the 50, we require one young adult from leadership classes, athletics, and other activities to join at the rate of one to every five adults.  In this manner, each E-YEP seminar will contain adequate youth participation and involvement. To ensure the success of your program, we reserve the right to cancel the program if the proper number of young adults cannot be provided for the E-YEP SEMINAR.

-Coaching Club Membership
Under this agreement, YDRF is providing access to the Youth Engagement Coaching Club to one member of the sponsoring organization.  The success of this initiative centers on the implementation of the various phases of E-YEP. By signing this contract, the sponsoring organization is committing to full involvement in the Effective Youth Engagement Coaching Club.

For more details on setting up a successful E-YEP Seminar, please download the E-YEP Coordinator’s manual here. Call 301-216-2566 for pricing.

Youth One Day Programs

1. MAKiN’ iT Day
See MAKiN iT Day Page for description

2. FEO Years (Four Hours)
Many schools and youth programs are only realizing marginal success at helping youth complete their education, prepare for jobs, and improve their level of academic performance. Communicating a message about the importance of education and work experience has been difficult, to say the least. Part of the problem lies in the fact youth don’t realize the importance of education and work experience to their economic future. The years of ages 14-26 are a young person’s “MAKiN’ iT” years, not wealth building years. During “MAKiN’ iT” years, youth should focus on understanding and gaining 5 key elements of FEO (Future Economic Opportunity):
-Skills
-Credentials
-Experiences
-Positive Support Networks
-Degrees

Youth Two Day Programs

1. Peer Support Worker Training YDRF will provide training for youth enrolled in workforce/educational programs and schools. The training will be designed to help youth focus on principles they will need to take a leadership role in ensuring that their Youth/Workforce Development System truly meets young people “where they are.” The training will utilize the principles of YCC to encourage youth leaders to take an active role in developing the program. Training content will focus on the development of YCC “Peer Support Workers”- a group of youth that will focus on improving the YCC of workforce and educational efforts in the following areas: Philosophy, Recruitment, Environment, Management, Leadership, Engagement, Curriculum and Outcomes.

Train your staff and youth today!

Check out our Engagement Services Section.

Have a look at our Client Portfolio.

To find out about availability & pricing please call 301-216-2566 or email us.