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How does youth development happen? Our youths do not grow up in isolation. They live and develop in many different contexts. These include their families, classrooms, peer groups, neighborhoods and religious settings. These settings provide the critical structures, resources and opportunities that help them grow and thrive.

Youths are also affected by their communities and, more broadly, by their surrounding culture. Many, if not all, of these settings influence them. Because of this, parents should consider interventions that touch upon many different contexts.

A young person’s development is enhanced when interconnections between different contexts — such as family and school — work well and when there is good communication between the adults in those settings, such as between parents and teachers.

While programs that target a very specific issue, such as drug use, may lead to some significant results, the most effective programs work on multiple levels. It is best when youths receive consistent messages over time from every sector of their settings.

This inclusive approach supports the basic principles of positive youth development. So what is positive youth development?

Positive youth development is an approach that focuses on young people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses. Many adults tend to view youths as “problems” to be solved rather than as assets who can contribute to their communities or their programs.

The term “youth development” often refers to a specific approach to working with young people in which youths are actively engaged in their own development and are positively involved in their communities. Community organizations and programs that use this approach create environments in which young people thrive.

There are eight important program features that promote positive youth development and can help young people develop important assets, such as good health habits, success in school and attachment to positive influences like schools, religious organizations and community-based youths programs.

These important program features include:

• Promoting a sense of safety;

• Providing appropriate structure;

• Creating supportive relationships;

• Providing opportunities to belong;

• Providing positive social norms, such as rules for behavior;

• Giving youths responsibilities and meaningful challenges;

• Providing opportunities for skill building; and

• Coordinating family, school and community programming.

Positive youth development must be an ongoing and intentional process. Young people need support in the form of acceptance, high expectations, affection and warmth. They also need opportunities to explore, create, contribute and belong.

Finally, they need relationships with parents, relatives, teachers, coaches and other caring adults.

Programs that offer youths and adult partnerships are a great opportunity for young people to have positive youth development experiences. These experiences help youths to learn leadership skills and other life skills that will help them to be better citizens in the future.

So parents, take a look at programs that are available and see if they align with what you are teaching in the home. Then, look at the opportunities that are available within youths programs and what is available for them as they grow into teens.

Longevity in a youths program is also a positive feature because the life skill of commitment is formed. If they find something new that meets their interest, let them move into it — it will teach them new life skills.

Overall, make sure whatever positive youth development program you choose for your child is best for them and the family.

4-H is a program that has been around for 106 years.

It is a program in which youths pick out what they want to learn and then find a club that best suits them. There are more than 45 different clubs in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. These clubs are led by screened volunteer leaders who set the club’s activities and meetings around their schedule.

I would love to talk to anyone about volunteering to lead a club or wanting to get their youths involved. Please call me at 474-2427, or call Debbie Tindell at 474-2420.