By Karen Beranek For much of the past two years young people, just like us youth development professionals, have focused so much energy on being resilient and building coping and adapting skills in the face of challenges . We’ve all gotten the chance to get pretty good at it. As we plan our fall programming, how can we shift from a reactive to a proactive approach where we move beyond resilience toward thriving? The 4-H Thriving Model illustrates how participating in high quality youth program settings helps youth thrive, and thriving youth achieve key developmental outcomes. Mary Arnold has led this work, and her blog about putting the 4-H Thriving Model into real world practice highlights the distinction between resilience and thriving: But thriving, ah, thriving is different than resilience. Thriving is more than coping with adversity and overcoming incredible challenges despite how difficult the situation is. Thriving is about optimal development- about being the best we can...
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.