National Youthworker Education Project records

The National Youthworker Education Project (NYEP) began as an initiative of the University of Minnesota's Center for Youth Development and Research to improve the quality of youth-serving organizations. Based on the conclusions of Project Girl, the NYEP noted that "young people tended not to perceive the opportunities available in the voluntary youth serving organizations." Beginning in 1975, the NYEP started a wide-ranging educational program in order to make youth organizations more "relevant" to adolescents. With financial support and program collaboration from the Eli Lilly Endowment, NYEP gained the participation of eight national "girl-serving" organizations: American National Red Cross, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Camp Fire Girls, 4-H, Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts, YWCA, and the United Neighborhood Centers of America.

The project was divided into two distinct phases. From 1975 to 1977, Phase I concentrated on an intensive two week or ten day educational seminar for selected staff from the participating youth organizations. Each of these seminars, which were held in Minneapolis, consisted of about 20 youth workers. The seminars covered a wide range of adolescent concerns and addressed how a youth organization could best meet these needs. The participants were encouraged to draw up "action plans," whereby the new information gained at the conference could be applied at the local level. A major effort of NYEP was to follow the progress of the "action plans." As a result, a follow up conference was held three months after the initial Minneapolis seminar. At these conferences, which were held in Indianapolis, the participants discussed the progress of implementing their respective action plans. By the end of Phase I, a total of 29 intensive education seminars were held in Minnesota, with 589 youth workers participating. Meanwhile, in addition to the 33 "follow up" sessions that were held in Indianapolis, the NYEP resulted in a number of spin-off seminars and workshops located in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Waterloo, San Francisco, Memphis, and Trenton.

All Phase I participants were asked to evaluate their educational experiences in the seminars. The reports consisted not only of daily evaluations while the sessions were in progress, but also long range follow ups occurring from three to six months after completion of the conference. In total, approximately 97% of the Phase I participants indicated a "high degree of satisfaction" with the NYEP project. More difficult to evaluate was the impact of the NYEP on the activities of youth organizations. However, according to one national study, the NYEP "made a significant contribution to youthwork." (Corder-Bolz Judy and D. Susan Wisely. An Evaluation of the National Youth Worker Education Project: a summary report. Austin, Texas: Southwest Educational Laboratory, 1980.)

The second stage of the NYEP project, Phase II, continued from 1978 to 1981. The second phase was "designed to provide additional links to the growing network of collaborative and cross-organizational services." One special focus of Phase II was emphasis on the non-affiliated adolescent. The NYEP argued that youth organizations offered a "non-stigmatizing" environment for the adolescent "experiencing serious life conflicts." According to the NYEP, the essential characteristic of a successful youth organization was its ability cooperate with other youth organizations and other local institutions, such as the juvenile justice system. Although the NYEP staff recognized "local boards with community reactions" may hamper implementation of a collaborative system, the empahsized that "communication and planning" needed to be "extended and reinforced."

As in Phase I, Phase II of the NYEP included educational sessions in Minneapolis. The participants in these seminars were chosen by recommendation of Phase I participants and applicants. Among the necessary qualifications were affiliation with one of the eight major youth organizations and experience in youth work. After the Minneapolis conference, regional follow ups were held in eight geographic areas. Unlike the Phase I follow ups, the 1978 to 1979 Phase II conferences represented a greater cooperative effort between the NYEP and the large, national youth organizations. For example, the national organizations offered financial incentives for former participants to attend the follow up workshops. The eight national youth organization executives also attended a special "mini session" in Indianapolis for the purpose of "intensifying" their commitment to the NYEP.

Although the NYEP was designed as a national project, the Twin Cities area of Minnesota received special attention from the staff of the Center for Youth Development and Research. In effect, the Twin Cities area offered an opportunity to witness the effects of a national educational effort on a local community. Because of requests from the executives and staffs of youth-serving agencies in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the directors of the NYEP, Gisela Konopka and Ruth Teeter, planned a condensed presentation of the regular NYEP seminars for the local youth workers. By 1979, it was determined that the format of the NYEP seminar could be developed into a special summer seminar at the University of Minnesota. The large majority of the students in these summer seminars came from the immediate Twin Cities area.

Another important local effort of the NYEP occurred in Indianapolis. The Indiana project concentrated on training consultation, direct training, and the "stimulation of collaborative efforts." In 1976, eight former NYEP participants founded the Indianapolis Girl Serving Alliance. The NYEP viewed the Alliance as a "laboratory" for demonstrating the effectiveness of the NYEP program. The Alliance's position paper called for more coordinated programming and more opportunities for "girls in trouble." The follow-up meetings of the Indianapolis group served as a model for the Phase II regional follow up conferences. At the local level, the Indianapolis program evidenced both success and limitations. While the Alliance became an important center for youth worker information, it also identified a high incidence of "burn out" among workers, who often felt powerless in implementing recommendations.

By 1981, the active portion of the NYEP was completed. In the period of five years, several thousand youth workers participated in the NYEP's training and follow up seminars. The responses of the participants showed a high degree of interest in the ideas presented. Moreover, the use of action plans allowed for the implementation of participant ideas. Yet, as the NYEP recognized, Action Plans were "a beginning step in planning and implementing change." Such change proved difficult to achieve immediately. Both lack of money and local organizational problems caused a great number of the action plans to fall behind schedule. Nonetheless, the NYEP's action plans suggested that community problems could be "addressed from more than one vantage point."