Not all Extension professionals enter the workplace with knowledge and experience in program development. Some may possess extensive expertise in their subject matter but need additional training in teaching-related competencies for adult or youth audiences. Even educators with extensive skill and experience benefit from thoughtful and intentional…

Numerous influential policy and scientific bodies are calling for more rapid advances in the scale-up of child and youth mental health services (CYMHS). A number of CYMHS innovations hold promise for advancing scale-up but little is known about how real-world efforts are progressing. We conducted a scoping review to identify promising approaches…

Developing tailored implementation strategies to increase the use of evidence-based practice (EBP) requires accurate identification of predictors of their use. However, known difficulties with measuring EBP use complicates interpretation of the extant literature. In this proof-of-concept study, we examined whether the same predictors of use of…

Measurement-based care (MBC) is an evidence-based practice (EBP) focused on regularly administering outcome measures to clients to inform clinical decision making. While MBC shows promise for improving youth treatment outcomes, therapist adoption remains low. Clinical consultation is one strategy that improves MBC implementation, but our limited…

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the Virginia Cooperative Extension internship program from the perspective of student participants and their supervisors. Three focus groups were conducted with internship supervisors from the summer of 2019. Student survey data was used to identify concerns from the student perspective to inform the…

This article briefly highlights each overarching theme and provides insight for ways coaches can apply these standards while working with athletes in various sport environments. Coaches play a very important role in an athlete's life. In many cases, this role continues far beyond one sport season. Therefore, it is imperative for all coaches to be…

Increasing community awareness and knowledge about environmental problems is the primary goal of environmental education. This study explores the best practices of the Youth for Environment in Schools--Organization (YES-O) in selected schools in the National Capital Region, Philippines. A qualitative study involving interviews and focus group…

The National Youth Sports Strategy (NYSS) is the first federal roadmap to unite the U.S. youth sports system around a shared vision: that one day all youth will have the opportunity, motivation, and access to play sports. Six months after the NYSS launched, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, disrupting the youth sports system. While the benefits of…

This dissertation examines a case of an international development initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the United States and implemented in North Macedonia. The specific initiative was a youth development program including a substantial career counseling component called the Macedonia Youth…

Purpose: In the United States, after-school programs have been found to improve healthy behaviors and increase time in safe, structured environments for youth, but less is known about Latin American contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of an educational program in an underserved school in Latin America. Method: A…

We report on the process of planning, adapting, and implementing a brief, instrumental, school-based mentoring curriculum originally developed in the United States, in three cities in India. India has the world's largest population of young adults aged 10-24 years, a developmental period associated with heightened psychosocial stressors and the…

This purpose of this qualitative study was to explore shared characteristics and local challenges of trauma-informed youth sport program design and implementation through the voices of ten program facilitators (e.g., director, trainer; 8 women, 2 men; average age of 36.2 years, SD = 6.03) across four U.S. regions. Within a postpositivist approach…

This case study examines the motivations of, and processes used by teacher leaders to establish a peace program at their middle school. These teacher leaders creatively engaged students in transforming school culture using empowering strategies to build positive peace among students, administrators, and teachers. Theories of peace education are…

This chapter reviews the steps taken in Slovakia to adopt and implement Youth Guarantee (YG) and how they interact with existing policy tools and governance structures. There is a long history of a high unemployment rate amongst the Slovak youth, with the lowly skilled youth in particular suffering the most. Hence, youth employability as a…

This dissertation consists of two chapters that examine the impact of educational and positive youth development programs on students' academic and behavioral outcomes. In the first chapter, I evaluate the effect of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, a school meal provision allowing schools meeting the eligibility requirements to…