4-H provides meaningful opportunities for all youth by connecting them with caring adult mentors and programs to develop relevant life skills to make changes in their own lives and communities. As the opportunity gap widens for youth and their needs change, the goal is that the 4-H system's 3,500 professionals and 500,000 volunteers will be equipped with the most relevant positive youth development (PYD) professional capacity-building opportunities in alignment with the 4-H thriving model to ensure high-quality PYD 4-H programs to 6 million youth annually. 4-H must align its professional capacity-building efforts with the current needs of youth and up-to-date PYD research to provide an environment for youth to thrive. The problem was that the 4-H system lacked the understanding of the readiness and willingness for professional capacity-building opportunities in PYD, which the 4-H thriving model guides. I conducted a performance analysis using the human performance technology (HPT) model (Van Tiem et al., 2012) to determine system readiness for PYD professional capacity building, including leadership support and the facilitators and barriers that 4-H professionals encounter. The performance analysis allowed for the collection and analysis of data to determine gaps and root causes and provide the appropriate recommendations for PYD advancement for front-line professionals implementing 4-H programs locally and decisionmakers in state and national leadership roles. The following central research question guided the analysis: What is the readiness and willingness of the 4-H system for PYD professional capacity building? I completed data collection and analyses using a qualitative design for the organizational and environmental analyses with document review, focus groups, and extant data from a program leader assessment survey (i.e., the State 4-H Program Leader PYD Academy Needs Assessment). The analysis helped me identify five distinct themes, including the limitations in understanding the application of the 4-H thriving model. In addition, identified themes included the need to interpret the model for volunteers, the need to tell the 4-H story, the need to provide evaluation support, and administrative issues in adopting the model. The organizational and environmental analysis results allowed me to conduct the gap and cause analyses with a stakeholder group. Employing Rothwell's (2005) solitary analyst worksheet, six-cell gap analysis, and gap criticality matrix, the group identified 10 performance gaps related to the problem of practice. The stakeholder group agreed to analyze the seven highest-rated gaps in the cause analysis further. Using the 5 whys technique, the stakeholder group defined each gap's root causes. Following identifying the root causes, I determined the intervention through the seven steps of the HPT model intervention selection process. The intervention I selected was a virtual training through the 4-H PYD Academy titled "4-H PYD Immersion: Supporting Volunteers Using the 4-H Thriving Model." The planning committee that I led successfully designed, developed, and implemented the intervention as realized in the formative and summative evaluation. The intervention increased the performance of the 4-H professionals to impact the millions of youth served annually. The review of relevant research affirmed the relevance of the problem of practice and told the story about the opportunity gap for youth, showing the importance of serving more diverse youth and emphasizing equity and inclusion. Exploring issues affecting the professionalization of the youth development field builds the case that professionals need support to close the opportunity gap. The review of PYD models and frameworks that 4-H has historically used, and their limitations, create the need for the 4-H PYD thriving model's theory of change (ToC) in developing and implementing high-quality 4-H PYD programs and related professional capacity-building opportunities. It became evident through the literature review that the youth development field has limited research to understand professional capacity-building needs. I completed the data collection and analysis, and subsequently, I implemented a recommended solution with a planning committee as part of this dissertation in practice to elevate the available research for the 4-H system and other PYD organizations. In addition, the study supported the 4-H PYD thriving model's ToC by providing recommendations for advancing this work. Understanding the PYD learning willingness and readiness through careful performance analysis was critical to the 4-H system. The performance analysis was valuable to the 4-H system because it allowed me to broadly see the issues to develop and implement the initial best intervention for the system and other solutions in the future. As the opportunity gap for youth continues to widen, the 4-H system owes it to the youth it serves to be the best-prepared professionals and volunteers to meet the changing needs of Generation Z and beyond. Resolving the problem of practice allows 4-H to continue accomplishing this goal. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]