BEST Initiative Training Menu

This eight-session, 32-hour training is based on the nationally recognized Advancing Youth Development curriculum. This training provides participants with grounding in the Positive Youth Development Approach. Participants are introduced to shared frameworks for discussing youth development and will learn how to foster positive youth outcomes, healthy relationships and boundaries, belonging and inclusion, collective resilience, and other critical issues.

The Youth Worker Certificate program can also be offered as a 4 or 5 day intensive.

This 4-hour training will provide participants with the critical elements for a successful training and workshop, and will offer tools and skills for positive behavior management. Participants will improve techniques for addressing challenging situations and review the elements of and create an engaging workshop agenda.

This interactive training can be offered as a 2 hour introduction or a 12 hour deep dive into Motivational Interviewing as a strategy for working with young people. Motivational Interviewing (MI) refers to a counseling approach developed by clinical psychologists Professor William R. Miller, Ph.D. and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D. MI is a goal-oriented, client-centered counseling style for supporting behavior change. In this training, we have adapted this counseling style for youth work practitioners working in youth programs. This training is a very hands-on approach to supporting youth, specifically in examining risky or problematic behaviors. Participants will take away tools and activities to use with the young people that they work with.

This 2-6 hour training will help participants identify the key elements of effective public speaking and presentations. It will create a safe training space to practice public speaking and improve presentation skills. Participants will gain skills to prepare and practice effective presentations.

This 3-hour training focuses on exploring the concept of healthy youth and youth worker relationships in programs. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own values and perspectives for healthy working relationships. This training will also provide participants with an opportunity to examine best practices for the four types of boundaries and ways they can continually support their youth to thrive.

This training can be offered as a 3, 6 or 12 hour exploration of the Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach, including a focus on positive, developmental outcomes for youth resulting in young people with more fully developed social skills, civic and cultural competencies, positive attitudes toward community, and a strong sense of identity (AED/Center for Youth Development Policy Research).  Participants will be guided on how to best build positive youth outcomes and Developmental Outcomes (DO’s) into their programming.  This training will also provide participants with an opportunity to explore youth participation and name strategies to build Youth Participation (YP) in their programs.

This 3-6 hour training will focus on exploring the concept of cultural humility, and how our values and experiences play a big role in how we operate in programs. It is essential to allow young people the space to be fully themselves, and sometimes, our own biases and assumptions can get in the way of this happening. There will be space for self-reflection and opportunities to think through how we can create space in programming for young people to share all the facets of their cultural identities.  By centering positive youth development in this conversation, the trainers will help participants along their ever-evolving journey of cultural humility and creating and cultivating spaces that are open and inclusive for young people to feel safe.

This interactive 2-4 hour in person training will present a healing centered approach to youth development. It will focus on how to distinguish between primary and secondary trauma as well as recognize trauma responses. In this training, participants will integrate healing centered practices in youth development based on SAMHSA’s six principles of trauma-informed care. Participants will reflect on their own approach to self-care as well as collective/community care for addressing cumulative stress and trauma.

This 4-hour training focuses on how to manage behavioral situations with youth using an asset-based approach. This training will help participants practice probing techniques to understand the underlying issues motivating youth’s behavior. Participants will also explore individual practices and appropriate behavior management strategies to help promote positive behavior.

This 3-6 hour training will help participants understand the elements of a trauma informed approach and how to apply the principles of trauma informed care to their work. It will teach participants to recognize the body’s stress responses and the effects of primary and secondary trauma on young people and staff. The training will focus on how to support young people to thrive by building on strengths and protective factors while fostering collective resilience. The training will help advance youth wellness by exploring self-care strategies and centering relationships and collective care as vehicles to healing.

This 4-hour training will equip new and experienced mentors to approach mentoring from a positive youth development approach. Participants will be able to identify the best practices in mentoring and define characteristics of a good mentor. Participants will learn to identify adultism and learn ways to combat it in their mentoring relationships.

This 3-hour training will focus on best practices for the recruitment and retention of youth in after school programming. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on what motivates youth to engage in their OST programs and identify barriers to recruitment. Participants will also review their program practices to ensure that high levels of engagement and a sense of belonging lead young people to persist in programming. Through interactive activities and reflection, participants will break down barriers, share creative solutions, and strengthen their overall programming.

This 3-hour in-person training explores core concepts of critical thinking with
engaging practices embedded into the workshop experience. Participants will
engage in activities that enhance critical thinking skills by using open ended
questions, enhancing problem solving skills, and incorporating structured
feedback and reflection. Participants will be able to adapt activities to their
specific setting and prepare to share what they’ve learned with their
colleagues.

This opportunity can be offered as a 4, 8 or 16 hour training. Community-based arts programming is the perfect medium for implementing a youth-centered, youth development approach to working with young people.  And, building your arts program on the youth development approach and philosophy is a powerful way to help young people develop strong identities, creative skills, and connections to their community. This training introduces youth workers and teaching artists ways to reinforce the natural alignment between youth development principles and strong arts learning experiences. At the end of the training, participants will be able to define the youth development approach and how the arts can promote developmental youth outcomes, as well as identify levels of youth participation and explore the steps of the creative process.

This 6-hour training will help participants become familiar with best practices in supporting young people in an employment setting while examining their role as both youth worker and supervisor. Participants will explore the four leadership styes of supervision and how to apply them to challenging situations. Participants will practice skills to help youth gain developmental outcomes while achieving program goals and expectations.

This 6-hour introduction to supervision will enable participants to identify the roles and responsibilities of a supervisor and explore management tools such as the “Star Model.” Participants will be able to articulate the four leadership styles of supervision and learn how to adapt to the supervisory needs of their direct reports. Case studies and real examples from participants will be explored in order to equip participants for challenges in supervision. Skill building will include active listening and identifying best practices for remote supervision.

This 9-hour training will support supervisors and managers of all levels to be equipped with the tools to supervise across difference (age, race, ability, class, education, etc.). Participants will explore their own aspects of identity, how it relates to power and privilege, and will apply these insights to supervision tools like active listening, power-sharing and decision making. We will also discuss how racism and other “isms” get in the way of being supportive and effective supervisors. Case studies and challenges will be used heavily to support participants in exploring their identities, power, and common challenges faced in supervising across difference.