Professional Development Offerings

Promoting Resilience and Youth Development in School Communities

Goals of the Professional Development Workshops

Four interrelated workshops are designed to help you:

Create more supportive and asset-rich environments,
Connect youth to their school communities,
Engage youth in learning, and
Reduce youth involvement in substance use, violence, and other risk behaviors.

You will be shown a process for using data from the Resilience and Youth Development Module of the Healthy Kids Survey to improve your school community through data-driven decision-making.

Who Should Attend

School board members and district, county, and site administrators
Teachers, counselors, prevention specialists, health coordinators, and student assistance teams
Preschool providers
Public health providers, mental health providers, alcohol & drug program providers
Law enforcement
After-school program staff and staff of community-based organizations
Schools that have administered the Healthy Kids Survey

Format of the Workshops

The four, interrelated workshops can each be presented in three formats: 1) as a half-day presentation, 2) as a one-day introduction and interactive session, or 3) as a more comprehensive two-day workshop. Additional follow-up days are available.

What You Learn

Workshop 1 — From Risk to Resilience: Principles and Strategies of Youth Development.
Participants will learn the research base for resilience and youth development approaches to prevention, education, and human services; strategies that promote developmental assets critical to healthy development and learning; and sources of support that sustain resilience practices.
Workshop 2 — Listening to Youth: Using Youth Assets Data for School Community Improvement.
Participants will learn to interpret and use their local Resilience & Youth Development Module data in school community planning; facilitate student focus groups as a process for increasing student involvement in school community improvement efforts; and create a research-based action plan based on student and staff recommendations.
Workshop 3 — Closing the Achievement Gap by Fostering Resilience and Youth Development.
Participants will learn the relationship between resilience and school success; strategies for increasing school connectedness and engaging the intrinsic motivation of students, especially those that schools have traditionally been unsuccessful in reaching; and how to create school culture that supports resilience in both students and staff.
Workshop 4 — "You Matter!" Promoting Resilience and Youth Development in Your After-School Program.
Participants will learn the principles of youth development and the major messages of resilience research; the power of caring relationships, high/positive expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution; and to develop strengths-based approaches in their after-school programs.

Who Facilitates Your Learning

For over twenty years, WestEd has brought the concept of resilience to the attention of national and international audiences through our staff’s deep experience working in the areas of resilience and youth development in schools and youth-serving agencies. Your trainings and workshops will be facilitated by Health and Human Development staff who have many years of experience with child and youth development, teaching, developmental psychology, and social-emotional learning and development, including resilience and pro-social development.

What the Research Says

A growing body of research in education and the behavioral sciences has clearly identified the qualities of families, schools, communities, and programs that produce good outcomes in young people, including both academic success and healthy development. The challenge for all youth-serving institutions, and especially for schools, is to recognize that youth development, health-risk behavior prevention, and academic success are inextricably tied, and that schools actually do have the power to provide youth with the supports and opportunities they need to succeed.

What Resources Support Your Learning

Participants receive a manual containing supportive materials, a list of useful resources, copies of workshop slides, and Resiliency: What We Have Learned.

Cost

Please contact Bo De Long-Cotty at 510.302.4218 or bdelong@wested.org to discuss the workshops and trainings fee structure.

"Thank you so much for a fantastic workshop! I've been getting e-mails from folks who had a great experience. Best of all, you have educated and inspired district and school leaders to embrace resiliency and carry this work further." -Workshop Participant

"[As a teacher, I believe] they should have this training (From Risk to Resilience) at every school in America and make it a college requirement for all teachers." -Workshop Participant

Individual Professional Development Workshops

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS: A TRAINING OF TRAINERS

To address the need for high-quality staff training in the area of youth development for after school programs, the California Department of Education contracted with WestEd in 2007 to create and train a statewide cadre of youth development trainers who will conduct a series of youth development trainings in their local school communities.

FROM RISK TO RESILIENCE: PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Participants learn the research base for resilience and youth development approaches to prevention, education, and human services; strategies that promote developmental assets critical to healthy development and learning; and to identify sources of support that sustain resilience practices and support the whole child.

LISTENING TO YOUTH CIRCLE

Participants learn to interpret and use local data on youth assets in school planning; facilitate student focus groups as a process for increasing student involvement in school community improvement efforts; and create a research-based action plan based on student and staff recommendations.

USING YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FOR COMPREHENSIVE SAFE SCHOOLS PLANNING

Participants learn how a caring school community creates a safe school; how to create a caring school community by using the principles of youth development; and how to meet federal and state safe schools requirements using a youth development approach.

CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP BY FOSTERING RESILIENCE AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Participants learn the relationship between resilience and school success; strategies for increasing school connectedness and engaging the intrinsic motivation of students, especially those that schools have traditionally been unsuccessful in reaching; and how to create a school culture that supports resilience in both students and staff.

“YOU MATTER!” PROMOTING RESILIENCE IN YOUR AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM

Participants learn the principles of youth development and the messages of resilience research as they apply to developing strengths-based approaches in after-school programs.

USING RESILIENCE DATA FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

This workshop uses the Resilience and Connectedness data from the California Healthy Kids Survey as a tool for school-improvement. The data is accessible by the majority of Californian schools and provides a key focus point for school wanting to make large or small improvements to their school environment. It offers the opportunity for change at the classroom, school and community level.

RESILIENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

This workshop leads teachers through a series of activities that highlight the research backing what many teachers do inherently in the classroom – develop relationships with the students; provide meaningful participation and set high expectations. It provides simple concrete examples of how teachers develop school connectedness.

Contact Information
Bo De Long-Cotty at 510.302.4218 or bdelong@wested.org

“We have used the data to assess school climate and address prevention and youth resiliency needs of our students. We have had excellent discussions at each of our School Site Council meetings around the data that will help guide future visions (and applications for funding and support). Without the CHKS, we would lose data that is vital to helping us focus on those areas (other than academics) that are so very important to the lives of "our kids" regarding choices they make, safety issues, challenges they face, and influences that could harm them. The loss of this data and information would quite frankly be harmful to kids.”

Templeton USD