The following questionnaire may be used by organizational leaders to begin assessing their organization's readiness to implement a youth development approach to serving young people. The assessment tool contains questions under three sections: (A) organizational development, (B) programs and services, and (C) collaboration.
| A. |
Organizational Development |
| 1. |
What is the organizational vision or mission with regard to implementing a youth development approach? Who was involved in creating that vision or mission? |
| 2. |
What has the organization done to ensure that all programs are based on a youth development rather than a problem-centered approach? |
| 3. |
What will be necessary to help staff and board members shift their thinking about youth from a "deficit based" to an "attribute based" approach? |
| 4. |
What is the staff and board members' understanding of the life development process, and what has the organization done to help them understand their own ongoing development? |
| 5. |
How has the organization trained staff and board members about the adolescent development process? |
| 6. |
What has the organization done with regard to examining conditions that exist within the community, how young people experience those conditions, and how negative conditions might be improved? |
| 7. |
What has the organization done to remove the barriers to healthy youth development that exist within the neighborhood, community, and Nation? |
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| B. |
Programs and Services |
| 1. |
Does the organization offer young people programs that do the following: |
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a. |
Provide a full range of services and opportunities? |
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b. |
Enable young people to develop new skills? |
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c. |
Teach personal life skills, such as problem solving, making decisions, setting and achieving goals, and creating and maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships? |
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d. |
Connect young people to caring adults (non-staff) and then support those connections? |
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e. |
Support young people's educational experience? |
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f. |
Provide academic and employment preparation and internships ? |
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g. |
Enable young people to consider and plan for their future? |
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h. |
Address the general problems of adolescence or specific difficulties without labeling youth as "troubled"? |
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i. |
Mix young people from various backgrounds? |
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j. |
Expose youth to new events, circumstances, opportunities, and locations? |
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k. |
Teach young people about what to expect from, or how to handle, real-life situations such as planning for the future, getting married, having children, maintaining employment, developing hobbies or special interests, celebrating successes, or adjusting to loss? |
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l. |
Place young people in supported leadership positions through which they are exposed to the challenges and satisfactions of collaborating with others to explore options, make decisions, and achieve positive outcomes? |
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m. |
Connect youth to the community through special projects or linkages to on-going community efforts or activities? |
| 2. |
Does the organization offer guidance to youth about how to take advantage of services and opportunities (provided through the organization, through other agencies, and in the larger community)? |
| 3. |
How does the organization address young people's need to take part in activities that are functional, educational, and fun? |
| 4. |
What characteristics demonstrate that a youth development approach underlies program efforts? |
| 5. |
How are the results of program efforts to support adolescent development measured and shared? |
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| C. |
Outreach and Education |
| 1. |
What is the prevailing youth policy (State or local), and how has the organization worked to inform the policy process with regard to youth development? |
| 2. |
How has the organization worked with the community to create and communicate a vision of what is necessary for the positive development of young people? |
| 3. |
How has the organization addressed the culturally based negative feelings about adolescents? How will it do so in the future? |
| 4. |
How has the organization used the media to counteract the current projection of negative images about youth that shape public opinion and therefore public policy? |
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| D. |
Collaborating with Other Youth Service Providers, Young People, and the Community |
| 1. |
How does the agency collaborate with other youth service providers to develop strategies for moving toward a youth development approach to helping young people within the community? the State? the region? |
| 2. |
How would other youth service providers characterize the agency's contributions to improving youth policy and practice? |
| 3. |
What has the organization done to truly involve youth, families, and community members in designing and evaluating programs and developing strategies for rebuilding communities? |
| 4. |
What types of situations has the organization created in which young people are valued and included? |
| 5. |
How will the organization help the community shift from thinking about youth from a "deficit based" to an "attribute-based" approach? |
| 6. |
How will the organization help the community to understand and value adolescent development as part of a lifelong developmental process? |
| 7. |
What real outcomes have resulted from the organization's collaborative efforts in the past? |
| 8. |
What real outcomes is the organization working toward through its current collaborative efforts? |
