The challenges faced by youth can hinder them from reaching their full potential or help them grow and develop as they overcome their challenges. Grit and resilience provide young people with the skills, confidence, and perseverance to overcome challenges, pursue their goals and thrive. In this article, the authors examine the complex constructs…

The targeting life skills model created by Dr. Patricia A. Hendricks represents the skills developed by youths participating in 4-H. The model is used to identify desired learning and action outcomes of positive youth development programs. An article related to the origins and validation of the model was never published. This oral history…

The "win at all cost" attitude shown by many youth sport coaches has caused many kids to drop out of sports. This article presents tips on how coaches can contribute toward their players' development of life skills, leading to increased enjoyment of the game, team unity and ultimately team success.

Research has demonstrated that many quality sport-based youth development programs promote life skill acquisition (e.g., leadership, self-control) with the ultimate goal of facilitating positive outcomes in youth participants' social and academic environments. Researchers call this "transfer of life skills" (i.e., the idea that physical,…

This report is part of the European Training Foundation's (ETF) regional initiative to map the policies and measures that support youth school-to-work transition in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. It focuses in particular on describing the key policies and programmes that address the challenges of youth employability and the bottlenecks…

In recent years, a substantial surge has occurred in the number of initiatives, events and organizations focused on using sport as a tool for development, peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts. This has created a growing need for educated leaders in the sport-based youth development field as the job market in this field continues to expand. The…

This evaluation report describes the findings from a multi-year evaluation of the Youth Service Professionals' Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Professional Development Demonstration and Evaluation Project (YSP/KSA Demo). The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD)/Youth conducted the YSP/KSA Demo to demonstrate the…

This report is a part of the European Training Foundation's (ETF) project on mapping youth transitions in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. It provides analyses on the youth situation in Ukraine and, in particular, on the youth policy measures currently being implemented in the country. While youth policy, in general, is addressing a range of…

This article explores the impact of a global youth work project that aimed to engage young people in social issues through the medium of hip-hop. We discuss the literature on education for social justice and then give an overview of the hip-hop project we analysed. We go on to explore the qualitative findings, asking what practices were most…

While previous studies indicate that participation in sport has the potential to facilitate positive developmental outcomes, there is a lack of consensus regarding the possible transfer of these outcomes to other environments (i.e., school or work). An important issue within the positive development literature concerns how sport programs should…

In 2017 the European Training Foundation (ETF) initiated mapping of the youth employment situation and policies in the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. The aim is to support the countries' institutions and stakeholders in the development of effective policies and structures to facilitate youth transition to work and foster youth…

This report specifically looks at young people and their school-to-work transition patterns in Moldova. The European Training Foundation (ETF) initiated a mapping of the youth employment situation and policies in the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries in 2017. The aim is to support the countries' institutions and stakeholders in developing…

This research examines how youth in arts and leadership programs develop skills for organizing actions over time to achieve goals. Ethnically diverse youth (ages 13-21) in 11 high-quality urban and rural programs were interviewed as they carried out projects. Qualitative analyses of 712 interviews with 108 youth yielded preliminary grounded theory…

In Belarus, youth policy is acknowledged as an important part of state policy on social, economic and cultural development, and the country has a well-developed legal framework covering all spheres of young people's lives. However, the fact that the youth unemployment rate is higher than the unemployment rate for the adult working-age population…

As experience camp directors, we've seen the challenges faced by young camp counselors and inexperienced staff. Evaluations from staff at many camps motivated us to help our people be more effective with their campers. In response we created a comprehensive camp staff training. Lessons showed staff what we wanted them to do and say as they…