Youth Development Insight

By Betsy Olson We collaborate with many different stakeholders and in many different ways. We partner with community organizations. We work with government entities to meet the needs of local youth. We work with our colleagues and, most importantly, we collaborate with young people. How do we know if our partnerships are working? One way to evaluate collaboration is to consider the elements that inspire stakeholders to collaborate with us. Research has identified six elements . Let’s look at these elements and how we can use them to plan an evaluation Recognition: Recognize partners for their contributions Questions to ask: What is the contribution that each partner is most proud of? How have they been recognized for their contribution ? How has the recognition demonstrated an appreciation for their work?  Respect: Partners are respected for the value and importance of the resources, perspectives and knowledge that they bring Questions to ask: In what way do we demon

By Amber Shanahan We define our roles in many ways. We are educators, mentors, facilitators, volunteers and coordinators, to name a few. How about adding "host" to the list? When you think of hosting, you may think of entertaining and feeding guests and making sure they're comfortable. You might think of a TV show host -- someone who makes sure that contestants follow game rules or entice guests to tell about their lives. An interactive host would spend time getting to know each guest, connect people with common interests, and make sure everyone is happy. An effective host always makes certain that every guest feels welcome and has a seat at the table. Do these activities sound familiar? Do they sound exactly like what you do in your youth program? I think you'll say the answer is "yes." The Art of Hosting (AoH) is a program development model that builds on this idea. Communities and organizations use it to improve decision making, build capacity an