New Advancing Youth Development (AYD) Core Competency Trainings

Jutta Dotterweich

Starting in August 2007, the NYS AYD Partnership is adding a new and exciting professional development opportunity to the menu of AYD trainings. The Revised AYD Curriculum promotes ten core competency areas and incorporates the standards compiled by the National Collaboration for Youth. In an effort to foster in-depth youth worker development in these competency areas, full-day, skill-based workshops will be offered focusing on one competency area at a time.

The workshops will be led by experts in the field. The workshops are direct trainings (no training of facilitators), and consequently do not require any prior AYD or youth development training experience. They are open to all interested professionals and volunteers who work with young people.

The core competency areas include:

- Understanding of basic child and adolescent development
- Communication skills
- Ability to facilitate and evaluate age appropriate activities
- Understanding of cultural diversity
- Understanding of and ability to facilitate youth empowerment
- Understanding of potential risk factors and preventive strategies
- Ability to engage families and communities
- Professionals skills - teamwork, ethics
- Ability to act as a positive role model
- Ability to interact with youth in ways that support asset building.

A minimum of two core competency trainings will be offered per year. The first two are:

- August 29 - Adolescent Sexuality & Development
- October 2 - Building Partnerships Across Differences (Working with Diverse Youth)

For Further Information

AYD website: http://www.nyayd.org
Contact Jutta Dotterweich: (607) 255-4108, jd81@cornell.edu