Despite major advancements in the field, staffing – everything from recruitment, retention, supervision, to performance – remains a major challenge. There is a need to reexamine currently held assumptions about what it will take to build a strong, stable, committed workforce. What incentives? What opportunities? What requirements? For whom? In what combination? This brief report by Nicole Yohalem, Karen Pittman and Sharon Lovick Edwards highlights lessons learned over the past six years by the Forum for Youth Investment, Cornerstones for Kids and the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition, with an eye toward implications for funders. We summarize what is known about youth workers, why investments in this workforce matter, and what funders (private and public) can do to spark and support these investments. The goal is to support discussions about how focused attention on workforce development can be a part of funders’ individual and collective efforts to strengthen and expand after-school and youth development programs and systems.

Strengthening the Youth Development/After-School Workforce January 2010 (212 K PDF)

NAA, Next Gen and NIOST co-sponsored the Stronger Staff, Stronger Youth Workforce Track at this year’s NAA Convention in April in New Orleans. The track was so successful that many sessions had to close their doors due to overcrowding. Topics included an Overview, Core Competencies for Afterschool Professionals, Strengthening the Workforce by Strengthening Supervision, The Tipping Point: Credentialing with the Whole Field in Mind, Expansion and Innovation: A Look at Higher Education Opportunities, Expanding T.E.A.C.H.

On November 16, 2007 – with guidance of a representative planning committee – CNYD hosted a conference for youth workers, organizational leaders, policymakers and funders to explore the development of a regional system of workforce support for youth workers. Emerging as it did out of a series of activities that took place during the past two years, the conference was both a culminating event and a starting point for work in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.

This is one of a series of reports produced by the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition about the youth workforce. This report summarizes themes from eight focus groups conducted with 83 Illinois youth workers from both urban and rural locations around the state. Topics include the motivation for entering this work, youth work preparation, what workers need to feel supported, career challenges, and factors influencing decisions to stay in or leave the field.

The Next Generation Youth Work Coalition's Bulletins include professional development/workforce promising practices, highlights of relevant projects, events in the field and more. The goal of the Coalition is to help achieve the vision of a strong, valued youth work profession through documentation, education and communications activities and by serving as a locus for joint action and collaboration within the field.