Positive Youth Development Paper

It is important for those working in a youth development setting to know their specific audience while implementing Positive Youth Development. I successfully defeated directing my first year of 4-H camp. I am anxious and enthusiastic to start planning for next year, thus my audience for this paper is going to focus on camp counselors ages 15 to 18. I am choosing this age group not only because they make such a positive impression upon the younger youth, but also because I think they have a lot to offer when it comes to planning certain aspects of camp. As anyone does after running any kind of large event, I have been reflecting on the things I need to improve and do differently for next year. Next year, I would like to use these counselors …show more content…
After talking with several of the counselors at the end of camp, I learned that there are things that have been done for the past several years that the campers along with the counselors do not enjoy. My ultimate goal for camp is to create an environment that the campers want to come back to. Equally and almost more importantly, I need to create an environment that the counselors enjoy and want to come back to. I could not have a camp without this group of 15 to 18 year …show more content…
According to Karen Pittman (1991), Positive Youth Development is “the ongoing process in which all young people are engaged in meeting their physical, personal and social needs and in building a set of skills and competencies that seem useful in their present lives and in the future”. In addition to Pittman’s definition, William Damon (2004) emphasizes that we should view youth as resources for their talents, strengths and interests. I like to emphasis what Damon states in his definition of positive youth development for my target audience. The first module of Ages and Stages helps us as youth development workers with a better understanding of our audience. This information is the foundation for us to have a practical understanding of what certain age groups can handle cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically. Without this knowledge and understanding, I might not receive the full potential I possibly could from my camp counselors. With McFarland and Huebner’s (2008) research of youth development I am able to understand where these camp counselors can use their strengths in the camp planning process next year. This specific group of teens can demonstrate the following social, emotional and cognitive strengths I see as most important while planning next year’s