Youth Development Summit

As communities throughout the Midwest search for ways to create positive environments for youth, there is a need for research, teaching, and evaluation focused on positive youth development. Youth development professionals must be able to identify the needs of young people, design and evaluate programs and mobilize communities to support youth.

To address these challenges, MSU Extension hosted a three day summit entitled "Furthering Our Understanding of Youth Development Work: Removing Barriers, Exploring Opportunities."

The working conference brought together youth development professionals from 11 states in the north central region.

"We wanted to bring together a critical mass of practitioners, researchers, and evaluators interested in youth development in order to shape a more effective response to communities," said Lynne Borden, who was then state leader of MSU Extension 4-H Youth Development.

"We spent three days working very hard to identify what the critical issues are in youth development, what the strengths are at our respective land grant institutions and how we can collectively move the field of youth development forward," Borden said.

Key participants included Richard Lerner, Bergstrom chair of Applied Developmental Science at Tufts University, Della Hughes from the National Network for Youth, and Dale Blythe, director of the Center for 4H Youth Development at the University of Minnesota.

Approximately 70 people participated in the conference to examine topics such as research on youth development, instruction in youth development, training and certification, and evaluations of programs and community initiatives.

"We are very pleased with how the conference turned out," said Borden. "There was an incredible amount of collective intelligence in one place."