Positive Youth Development
When youth have opportunities to build the core skills needed to be productive participants in their communities, the next generation of citizens, workers and parents will thrive. WWO’s Positive Youth Development program equips young people with the tools they need to navigate the challenges and responsibilities of adolescence and to grow into competent, resilient and responsible adults.
Positive Youth Development
Adverse childhood experiences can cause trauma in children. Our goal is to support young people by increasing their skills and capacity to make healthy choices, cope with adversity, and develop positive peer relationships to move from merely surviving each day to actively participating in their own and their community’s positive development. As seen in our Theory of Change, our Positive Youth Development curriculum covers topics from self-care, to education, vocational training, job skills, and building healthy families.
Negative experiences interrupt a child’s ability to develop positive relationships. This trauma causes them to miss critical developmental milestones and creates lasting negative consequences. Youth and adults who have experienced significant childhood trauma are more likely to drop out of school, leaving them at risk of not reaching their productive potential. Low skills perpetuate poverty and inequality and the cycle continues. According to the World Bank, one third of the working age population in low- and middle-income countries lack the basic skills required to get quality jobs.
What Impact Looks Like
Positive Youth Development program goals include:
Improved socio-emotional skills, including positive youth development and healthy peer relationships
Increased job skills
Increased number of youth and adults re-enrolling in school or becoming gainfully employed
Research that informs Positive Youth Development programming
Adolescence is a critical period of transition. A time when society expects youth to be equipped with the tools they need to navigate the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. UNFP states that investing in the needs of youth is perhaps the single best way to bring benefits to society as a whole.
According to a report commissioned by Ernst & Young in the U.S. alone, deficits in basic skills cost businesses, colleges and under-prepared graduates as much as $16 billion annually in lost productivity and remedial expenses.
As we invest in the growth, skills and well-being of our youth, we are investing in the future of our communities and society as a whole.
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