Youth Today
Opinion
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1.0KFrom participants to partners: Rethinking the role of alumni in youth programs
Youth program alumni are vital social capital not usually harnessed by youth organizations.
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1.4KEvery Connection Optimized: Four accelerators for activating learning ECOsystems where all youth thrive
A new blueprint identifies four accelerators crucial to constructing learning ecosystems and a workforce dedicated to thriving youth and families.
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1.3KWe keep asking young people to trust us. But how much do we really trust them?
Across the allied youth fields, youth are often asked to contribute but rarely allowed to shape outcomes.
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1.6KPermanency without connection fails foster youth. True support means lasting relationships.
Foster youth need relational permanency — lasting, supportive relationships into adulthood.
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1.4KWhat the Starfish Story reveals about child welfare — especially in April
There are moments in child welfare work where you know, without question, that what you did mattered.
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1.5KEntering the life space of the child: Frank Fecser’s legacy in action
Re-EDucation is a systematic, relational, ecological approach to working with children with mental/behavioral challenges.
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1.6KFrom training to education: College credit for youth workers
When youth workers apply to college, their work experience doesn't count. One solution lies in Credit for Prior Learning (CPL).
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1.5KFive shifts that would change everything
A podcast discusses five concrete changes that can be made in any youth development setting.
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1.3KWhat John King’s teachers were actually doing
Helping youth thrive is about designing learning environments that prioritize consistency, challenge, and agency.
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1.3KStructure, control and leaving room
Youth practitioners play a critical role in shaping youth environments by establishing norms, safety, and a larger vision — not by controlling...
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1.8KChildren suffer when child welfare ignores the evidence base
Child abuse deaths are needles in a haystack. But we’ve spent half a century making the haystack bigger.
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1.5KChild safety was never meant to look like this
The U.S. invokes child protection to justify family separation, prolonged detention and forced placements, but this distorts the origins of child safety.
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1.5KLook inside: What MCA taught us about gratitude, growth and growing up
MCA’s legacy, when seen through a developmental lens, offers a clear example of how gratitude can emerge alongside maturity, identity and purpose.
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1.4KWhy agency, voice and coherence is the work: Supporting social, emotional and academic well-being and thriving in challenging times and contexts
From a developmental perspective, coherence is not something young people are told they are part of; it is something they feel.
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1.4KTwice a refugee
A young, LGBTQ refugee shares their journey from Africa to Trump's United States and then Canada, highlighting the fear permeating immigrant communities.
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1.4KBig Thought: The ecosystem intermediary behind Dallas City of Learning
Big Thought brings arts education into the community and tackles other opportunity gaps.
