By Jacquie Lonning & Amber Shanahan We are proud to introduce Minnesota 4-H’s foundational youth leadership framework--The Leadership Tree--developed to illuminate the pathways that inspire young people to be innovative social change agents through the Minnesota 4-H Youth Development program . The purpose of the 4-H Leadership Tree Leadership skills are acquired at all ages and in many forms for youth. The Leadership Tree was designed to define leadership at various levels and outline diverse access points for a young leader to engage in programming, no matter their age or prior leadership experiences. In articulating these definitions and pathways, we hoped to provide our Minnesota 4-H staff, along with other youth workers, with a framework to enhance the quality of current leadership offerings, identify gaps for new programs, and provide youth with a roadmap of how to learn and lead through our program. Once we landed on the tree as our main metaphor, our ideas took root (see wh...
Our youth development educators bridge research and practice. In this blog, they offer their views on what's happening in the field of youth development, with an eye to evidence-based research written by themselves and others in our field. We welcome your comments.