Keys to Quality Youth Development

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4. Youth Discover Self
Premise
Youth are encouraged to try new things and learn about themselves. As a result they discover and practice their interests and skills, test their independence, and take control of their lives.
Building a Foundation Positive Identity Positive identity provides young people with a sense of purpose. The Search Institute identifies important examples: Personal power - Young people feel they have control over things that happen to them. Self-esteem - Young person reports having high self-esteem. Sense of purpose - Young person reports that "my life has a purpose." Positive view of personal future - Young person is optimistic about her or his future.	Selecting Outcomes What will be done in your program to make sure youth - are challenged to attempt or learn something new? discover something about themselves? have an opportunity to be someone special? apply content and life skills learned to their everyday lives?
Identifying Practices
Create experiences with youth that apply to real-life situations. Use the experiential learning cycle-experience, share, process, generalize, and apply. Allow adequate time to talk about the experience. Participate in community service or volunteer opportunities. Match youth with mentors. Use role play.
How It Works    A group of teens accepted the challenge to develop a new program for younger youth. The program would provide information about critical issues and develop decision-making skills. The teens developed a teaching plan, learned teaching skills, and determined results, including change in themselves and in the younger youth they taught. Through this opportunity, the teens strengthened self-identity and self esteem, learned how to influence decisions about critical issues, developed teamwork skills, and explored interests and skills which could relate to career decisions.	Things To Think About Offer everyone the same opportunities. Include challenges in the experience. Allow time for the participants to create their own experiences. Do not solve problems for youth. Be supportive and interested and allow them to think of their own solutions. Words Of Wisdom "If you try too hard to impress other people and make all your decisions based on what they think, then you’re not living for yourself and eventually you forget who you really are." Dawn, age 11, Take Time to Play Checkers.
Questions For Youth
How did you express your own ideas during this experience? As a result of this experience what did you learn about yourself? How did you experiment with new techniques? Think back to a time when you felt that you had little or no control over your life or a situation. How would you deal with it differently now?
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