Youth Development Insight

Posts

Portraits of greatness

By Savannah Aanerud What makes a leader a great one? My colleague Anna Rose and I recently had the privilege of leading 34 youth and 4 chaperones on the trip of a lifetime to Washington D.C. for the National 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus (CWF) Conference . CWF’s mission is that, "Youth will learn about leadership through the lens of American Democracy." We toured Smithsonian museums, national monuments, and Arlington Cemetery to explore what it means to be an agent of change. While touring the National Portrait Gallery , we explored democracy through the people who have helped shape our country, from poets to presidents and from activists to visionaries. What is a portrait? One of my favorite definitions comes from the National Gallery of Ireland : "A portrait is an artwork that tells a person’s story. The artwork can be made of any material, from painting on canvas to a piece of performance art!" We saw portraits of impactful individuals such as Benjamin Frankl

Youth development lessons from The Bear

By Kate Walker I wrote a post on youth development lessons from the hit TV series Ted Lasso . That inspired me to find similar lessons in my new favorite show, The Bear , which is about a renowned chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother’s struggling Italian beef sandwich shop. Chef Carmy dreams of transforming the restaurant into a world-class restaurant, but is constantly battling personal struggles, crushing debt, a rundown kitchen and unruly staff. Through it all, I draw important lessons in teamwork, leadership, personal growth and purpose. Teamwork and leadership The show demonstrates the value of diversity in a team, where different personalities come together to solve problems and overcome setbacks, from failed inspections to exploding toilets. As chef de cuisine, Carmy listens to the kitchen staff, seeking their expertise and advice before determining the path forward. Determined sous-chef Sydney studies and applies leadership lessons from Duke Unive

Helping youth find hopeful purpose

By Sarah Odendahl I sometimes find myself talking with other parents about the desire to help our children thrive as they grow - but what does thriving really mean? How do we define it? The 4-H Thriving Model describes youth thriving as "social, emotional, and cognitive learning." It also describes seven indicators of thriving, including "hopeful purpose." The model describes a hopeful purpose this way: "Thriving youth have a sense of hope and purpose, and see themselves on the way to a happy and successful future." How common is it for young people to feel this way? We know that the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a youth mental health crisis in 2021 , and that Gen Z experiences higher rates of anxiety about extreme weather and climate change and perceive more dangers in life than previous generations . Two surveys from the end of 2023 asked youth about hope and purpose more directly. Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation report only 64-6

It’s okay, not to be okay - May is Mental Health Awareness Month

By Amy Sparks In 2023, Minnesota State Fair 4-H Building visitors were asked to share the needs in the world they care most about and place them on a Universe of Service. Many fair-goers identified mental health care as a need. Photo by Amy Sparks. "How is everyone?" A simple question, yet it holds profound power in igniting discussions about mental well-being. Earlier this year, Elmo from Sesame Street posed this question on social media , triggering an outpouring of responses. From tales of relationship strains to battles with financial difficulties, fatigue, isolation, and disconnection, individuals shared their innermost feelings. Elmo's post garnered millions of views, reposts, likes, and comments, underscoring a reality we cannot overlook: many among us are grappling with challenges. And that's alright. What's crucial is acknowledging this reality and ensuring everyone knows assistance is within reach. May isn't just

To create a volunteer-led youth program, focus on equity

By Jessica Pierson Russo Volunteerism in the United States has been declining for decades, but it dropped even further (7%) between 2019 and 2021. People volunteer for any number of reasons—to give back, to socialize, perhaps to learn a new skill in a fun way. A great way to scare people away from volunteering is to make it complicated or unwelcoming. One way to ensure a barrier-free opportunity to youth programs is to focus on equity, because this makes sure that everyone receives the unique resources and opportunities they need to participate in a meaningful way. An equitable approach is first a welcoming one. When we’re asking people to volunteer their time to lead a youth program, we can be most welcoming to them by focusing on building the relationship and keeping it simple. By "relationship," I mean both our relationship with the volunteer , and their relationship with the program. We can think of creating a volunteer-led youth program through five steps. Step 1: Gath

Reed Larson’s research on youth development

By Kate Walker I recently attended the annual meeting for the Society for Research on Adolescence where my mentor Reed Larson was invited to reflect on his influential research career in youth development. Reed first got interested in adolescence because he saw it as a critical period of awakening. Yet he noticed that most research focused on problems more than development, and he discovered that youth programs were powerful spaces for this awakening and development to occur. These insights propelled an impressive body of research that has tremendous implications for our work with and on behalf of young people. Young people’s daily experiences and emotions With his mentor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , Reed began by studying adolescents’ daily experiences and emotions, pioneering the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) where young people were prompted (with beepers back then!) to report on their feelings and the dynamics of their experiences in different domains in their daily lives. He exp