The offerings below are the suite of short, online courses to introduce youth work and present practical strategies for providing care in congregate settings. Each course is 30-90 minutes long and can be started and stopped as needed.
Many of the offerings include learning activities that can be used to stimulate discussion and/or apply course material in your homes or facilities. These materials can be used individually, by staff teams, and/or by supervisors in team meetings.
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Optional Learning Activities
These documents list recommended learning activities to complement some of the modules listed below. You may use these to deepen your understanding of the material.
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Cultural Intelligence and Healing
Calming Challenging Behaviors
Motivational Interviewing in Youth Work
LGBTQ Foundations: Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills
Ethical Dilemmas in Youth Work
Youth and Technology
Calming Challenging Behaviors
After module launches, press play button to view recorded presentation. Some features may not work as presentation is no longer live.
LGBTQ Foundations: Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills
After module launches, press play button to view recorded presentation. Some features may not work as presentation is no longer live.
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Cultural Intelligence and Healing
After module launches, press play button to view recorded presentation. Some features may not work as presentation is no longer live.
Motivational Interviewing in Youth Work
After module launches, press play button to view recorded presentation. Some features may not work as presentation is no longer live.
Ethical Dilemmas in Youth Work
After module launches, press play button to view recorded presentation. Some features may not work as presentation is no longer live.
Youth and Technology
When you have completed this course, you will be able to:
- Describe current trends in teen online behavior
- Identify key features of the internet and its implications for online behavior
- Describe the impact of social media on adolescent well-being and development
- Describe ways to build digital literacy and citizenship skills in youth
Follow the steps below to access and complete the course.
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Access the Positive Youth Development 101 Site
Create an Account
The Registration link is under the login fields. You will create a user name and password. You will not provide any personal or identifying information other than your email address.
Log in
When you have created an account. Log in to the site.
Find the Course "Youth and Technology"
The Course “Youth and Technology” will appear on your course list. Check marks will appear on the drop-down list as you complete each section.
Manually Mark Your Progress as You Move Through the Course
And the end of each section you will see a Mark as Complete button. Click that button to register you have finished that section of the course.
Think Trauma
Think Trauma is a 6-hour professional development opportunity for group home staff and supervisors adapted by and offered with support from Northwestern University’s Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services, and Interventions, which is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
The Think Trauma course introduces group home staff to trauma-informed principles that connect trauma’s relationship to delinquency, develop an understanding of youth’s responses to trauma, its effect on their development, coping strategies, and self-care for the trauma worker.
In addition, with the goal of becoming a trauma-informed agency in mind, supervisors are engaged in a Community of Practice half-day session. This session allows supervisors to engage with peers in a semi-structured setting to problem solve and share successes in supporting the application of trauma-informed principles into policy and practice. Click here for more information about the dates and locations of available classes.
