Recently in the Events Category

All staff are invited join us April 30 at 12 noon for a webinar with Mariah Korhbluh.

Korhbluh will share her research on youth participatory evaluation efforts. She will review the range of themes in the literature, trends in methods and practices, and remaining gaps for the field. In particular, she will discuss the role of innovative methods and creative strategies for evaluation and engagement and the implications of these strategies for practice. She will also reflect on her personal experience using youth participatory methods.

Join the webinar here:
https://umconnect.umn.edu/ype-mariahkorhbluh/

Mariah Korhbluh is a graduate assistant at the University of Michigan's Community Evaluation and Research Collaborative.

This webinar is part of the Howland Symposia learning series and Innovators Learning Cohort focusing on youth participation in evaluation and assessment. Please contact Jessica Jerney at jern0015@umn.edu with questions.

April is the national "Month of the Military Child," a time to honor youth impacted by deployment. Extension 4-H and Operation: Military Kids invite you "Purple Up! For Military Kids!" We encourage everyone to wear purple on the annual national day of recognition, Monday, April 15, to show support and thank military children across the country and in Minnesota for their strength and sacrifices. Purple is the color that symbolizes all branches of the military, as it is the combination of Army green, Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, Marine red and Navy blue.

Extension 4-H delivers Operation: Military Kids programs to help youth discover positive ways to cope with their loved ones' deployment, and feel connected, active and supported.

Please join Extension in taking this opportunity to appreciate and celebrate these young heroes. Help spread the word to "purple up" on April 15 so that Minnesota's military youth can see the support of their community!

The Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, along with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, is pleased to host the 2013 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference. The conference will take place on Tues., June 25 - Fri., June 28, 2013 at the Marriott City Center in downtown Minneapolis. This conference brings more than 450 educators, agri-business professionals and state program staff and volunteers from across the United States. During the conference participants will attend agricultural literacy workshops and learning labs, network with exhibitors, tour local agriculture, recognize exemplary teaching, learn from children's author Cris Peterson, and have some fun with conference keynote, Bizarre Food's own Andrew Zimmern! The early bird deadline is fast approaching on April 15, 2013!

For more information, check out the conference flyer:
http://www.agclassroom.org/conference2013/pdf/flyer_web.pdf

Homeless Children and Youth: Opening the Doors of Intervention and Policy

Tickets still available!

Date: April 5, 2013
Time: 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Location: University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center and broadcast live via web stream and ITV
Cost: $60 Metro, $25 Web Stream, $20 Student

This seminar features a team of professionals who will discuss causes, as well as intervention and prevention strategies that address the growing number of homeless children and adolescents in Minnesota. An intervention program that members of the presentation team designed for Ramsey County will provide one model for discussion.

Presenter-participants:

• Mark Hudson, Midwest Children's Resource Center
  
• Beth Holger-Ambrose, Homeless Youth Services Coordinator, MN DHS
  
• Emily Huemann, Supervisor, Sexual Offenses Services (SOS), Ramsey County

• Understand the causes and scope of homelessness particularly as this relates to children and youth
  
• Listen to homeless youths' stories
  
• Identify risks for youth who are homeless
  
• Learn to use the 10-question screening tool developed to be used by law enforcement with runaway youth
  
• Identify homeless youth services that currently exist
  
• Develop programs that provide more strategic interventions through coordination and collaboration with courts and community agencies

Putting Youth Participatory Evaluation into Action: Lessons learned and innovations presented by Katie Richards-Schuster

Katie Richards-Schuster defines participatory evaluation as a process in which people join together and develop knowledge for action and change. It involves people in evaluation, community assessment, policy analysis, and other studies and it can give young people the power to ask their own questions and influence organizations and communities in unexpected ways. She offers that moving towards "evaluation research as program participation" can significantly change how we practice youth work.

Join Katie as she shares lessons and innovations from Detroit, Michigan and other cities utilizing youth participatory evaluation, and the implications of this evaluative practice in local communities and the field of youth work.

Thursday, March 14, 2013
8:30 a.m. - 12 noon
McNamara Alumni Center - Memorial Hall
200 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis map

Register to participate in person or online

Due to a generous $40,000 matching grant from the Dean of Extension, the Minnesota 4-H Foundation has a unique opportunity to raise funds to support the Minnesota 4-H State Arts-In program and make technology improvements for this program as well as other activities at the 4-H building on the state fair grounds.

To raise matching funds, the 4-H Foundation is hosting the State Arts-In First 40 Gala on Sat., Mar. 2, 2013.

To contribute or for more information, contact 612-624-7971 or fdnstaff@umn.edu.

It's time to think about this year's Youth & U staff development conference!

Youth & U will be held Feb. 4-6, 2013 at the Holiday Inn, St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Details were sent in an email on Nov. 29 and are also available at:
http://www1.extension.umn.edu/youth/staffonly/youthnu/index.html

Registration is due Dec. 14, 2012. Register at Y&U 2013 REGISTRATION.

The video recording of Kim Sabo Flores' presentation, Transforming Youth-Adult Relationships through Research and Evaluation is available for viewing.

Visit our website to watch the video of the symposium presented on Oct. 29, 2012.

Synopsis: Kim Sabo Flores offers a playful and cutting-edge approach to youth participating in evaluation that has the potential to radically shift the way youth and adults form partnerships. Decades of progress in research and evaluation coupled with the evolution of positive youth development have contributed to shaping the field of youth participatory evaluation. Sabo Flores provides practical examples and tools that support youth involvement in evaluation and research and offers national and international perspectives on the development of the field.

About the speaker: For the past two decades Dr. Flores has been committed to developing strategies that build the evaluation capacities' of nonprofit organizations. Drawing upon her training in developmental and environmental psychology, Dr. Flores has introduced hundreds of adults and young people, their programs and their communities to the empowering impact of creative and sustained participation, reflection and evaluation. In addition, she has worked with numerous foundations, supporting them to measure their "community" impacts and progress toward achieving their missions.

This event was made possible by the Howland Family Endowment for Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota.

Wed., Oct. 17, 2012
University of Minnesota, Crookston

Please join us for a day of discussion and presentations on creating natural play spaces. Wherever you and your community are at in the process, this workshop will have something for you!

In the morning, we will offer plenary presentations by U of M staff and local partners that will cover the planning, installation, and programming aspects of natural play spaces with examples of what has been done in the region. The afternoon will consist of break-out discussions that will address exactly what is needed to move your project forward.

$15 registration fee includes lunch. For more info contact the Extension regional center at 218-281-8696 or mleblanc@umn.edu. Also, check out the Children and Nature in Northwest Minnesota Facebook page!

Register here: http://z.umn.edu/NaturalPlaySpace

Mon., Oct. 29, 2012
8:30 a.m. - 12 noon

McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street SE
Johnson Room
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Register to attend online

Register to attend in-person

Presenter: Kim Sabo Flores, Ph.D.

Addressing the role of young people in evaluation and assessment, Kim Sabo Flores offers a playful and cutting-edge approach to youth participating in evaluation that has the potential to radically shift the way youth and adults form partnerships. Decades of progress in research and evaluation coupled with the evolution of positive youth development have contributed to shaping the field of youth participatory evaluation. Sabo Flores provides practical examples and tools that support youth involvement in evaluation and research and offers national and international perspectives on the development of the field. Currently the associate director of the Thrive Foundation for Youth, Dr. Flores offers an expertise in program evaluation, organizational development, and positive youth development. She has conducted international research and evaluation projects that have focused on youth development, children's rights, post conflict, protection, international development, and a variety of social issues.

The symposium is part of three-year series focusing on Youth Program Quality Improvement, which will include efforts to study the impact young people have on program improvement in key leadership roles as quality assessors, implementers, activators, coaches, and evaluators as well as how adults can effectively support and work with youth as a force in program quality improvement.

This event is made possible by the Howland Family Endowment for Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota. The Howland Endowment is designed to attract state and national practitioners, researchers and policy experts to further youth leadership development and advance critical issues by focusing on a single topic over an extended period of time.

The Howland Endowment is designed to attract state and national practitioners, researchers and policy experts to further youth leadership development and advance critical issues by focusing on a single topic over an extended period of time. The forthcoming three-year cycle focuses on Youth Program Quality Improvement. It includes efforts to study the impact young people have on program improvement in key leadership roles as quality assessors, implementers, activators, coaches, and evaluators as well as how adults can effectively support and work with youth as a force in program quality improvement.

The first symposium of this series will be on Oct. 29 with Kim Sabo Flores as the guest speaker, addressing the role of young people in evaluation and assessment. Currently the associate director of the Thrive Foundation for Youth, Dr. Flores offers an expertise in program evaluation, organizational development, and positive youth development. She has conducted international research and evaluation projects that have focused on youth development, children's rights, post conflict, protection, international development, and a variety of social issues.

Stay tuned for more information.

Play Power: How play motivates children's academic and social development

Featuring Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Lefkowitz Professor of Psychology, Temple University
& University of Minnesota Extension Children, Youth and Family Consortium 20th Anniversary Celebration Reception

June 7, 2012
Reception 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Event 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota Children's Museum, St. Paul, MN

You are invited to the final lecture of the Wonder Years Forum series. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek will examine the importance of free play and playful learning as a catalyst for success and a means of bringing innovation, flexible thinking, and creative innovation into the global world.

The University of Minnesota Extension Children, Youth and Family Consortium is hosting a reception prior to the forum to celebrate its 20th anniversary of integrating research and practice for kids and families.

There is no fee to attend, but registration for the reception and lecture is required by June 1. Space is limited!

For more information about the forum and reception please visit cyfc.umn.edu.

Please save the date for the 2013 National Urban Extension Conference, May 6-9, 2013, Kansas City, Kansas. The conference is hosted by K-Sate Research and Extension.

Rec-reate, Re-create is a conference for all who teach or support environmental education--in classrooms or communities. The 2-day event is at Itasca State Park, June 21-22, 2012.

Conference attendees from schools, nonprofits, universities, government, and private business will share ideas about teaching Minnesotans and explore topics including outdoor classrooms, innovations in environmental education, new approaches for serving specific types of audiences, and ideas to nurture the creative soul through environmental education.

Mike Mann, an award-winning storyteller, will examine the main attributes of creatives environments, indoor and outdoor while playing with ways to spark individual creativity and Roslye Ultan, a teacher and curator, will help us explore the role of art and aesthetics in sustainable communities.

Join us! Click here to register online.

Additional registration information:

• Cost is $150 for MAEE members, $180 for non-members.
  
• Online registration is payable by Visa, MasterCard or mailed check.
  
• CEUs are available (9 hours).
  
• MAEE has reserved limited lodging in the park. Information about these and other non-MAEE-managed options is posted on the Location and Lodging page.

Questions? Please contact MAEE at maeeinfo@gmail.com.

Working in youth-serving organizations: The sphere of professional education

Today there is a clear understanding that ongoing training and education for professionals is not only a smart investment but is a professional obligation. But, what should that training look like? Should it be grounded in youth, work, youthwork? Should it focus on the development of competencies, critical reasoning, new understandings? Who should participate and how should effectiveness be judged? Dr. Dana Fusco presents her current research on the sphere of youth work education in the United States. The sphere of youth work education is rotated geometrically to look at the places and spaces it occurs; sliced anthropologically to examine the cultural traditions and influences; and lifted to see what human understandings of youth work lie underneath.

Thursday, May 3
9 a.m. to 12 noon; registration begins at 8:30 a.m.
Memorial Hall, McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis
Free but registration is required.

Register to attend in person.

About the speaker: For the past 20 years, Dr. Dana Fusco's research has focused on youth work as a practice and a profession and has led to increased national and international recognition. Dr. Fusco is currently serving as the Howland Endowed Chair at the University of Minnesota. Her regular position is as Associate Professor in Teacher Education at York College, City University New York. She received her Ph.D. in Education Psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center.

April is national "Month of the Military Child," a time to honor youth impacted by deployment. Extension 4-H and Operation: Military Kids invite you to "Purple Up! For Military Kids!" We encourage everyone to wear purple on the second annual national event Fri., Apr. 13 to show support and thank military children across the country and in Minnesota for their strength and sacrifices. Purple is the color that symbolizes all branches of the military, as it is the combination of Army green, Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, Marine red and Navy blue.

Extension 4-H delivers Operation: Military Kids programs to help youth discover positive ways to cope with their loved ones' deployment, and feel connected, active and supported.

Please join Extension in taking this opportunity to appreciate and celebrate these young heroes. Help spread the word to "purple up" on Apr. 13 so that Minnesota's military youth can see the support of their community!

The Extension Children, Youth and Family Consortium's Children's Mental Health Lessons from the Field titled: "Traumatic Stress and Youth: How do we intervene with our most challenged teens?"

This event will be hosted from the University of Minnesota at McNamara Alumni Center and broadcast to over 25 sites in greater Minnesota.

Mar. 29
9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Registration available at www.cmh.umn.edu .

This workshop features Anne Gearity, PhD who will moderate a series of "conversations" reflecting a research/practice partnership. Panel members include:

• Ed Frickson, MS, LP - Executive Director of Mental Health Services, Family Innovations, Inc.
• Carolyn Garcia, PhD, MPH, RN - Univ. of MN School of Nursing, photo voice project with Hispanic youth
• Monica Luciana, PhD - Univ. of MN Department of Psychology
• Charlene Myklebust, PhD - Director of Social Emotional Interventions and Partnerships, Intermediate District 287
• Nimi Singh, MD, MPH - Univ. MN, Medical School, Pediatrics and Adolescent Health
• Antony Stately, PhD, LP - Director EAP/Mental and Chemical Health Programs, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community

Participants will:

• Incorporate research-based strategies into work with adolescents to mediate adverse events in their lives
  
• Reflect on diverse treatment and relationship interventions for adolescent populations
  
• Address the complexity of power struggles that provoke and limit effective interventions with challenged teen who present challenging behavioral responses.
  
• Develop strategies that provide adolescents with models for relationship interests, agency, and reflective functioning.

Culturally Responsive Youth Work Matters Brown Bag Webinar - online - Feb. 8
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Cost: Free, but registration is required.

Youth Development's 100 Year Legacy: Lessons to shape future research and practice - web - Feb. 13
11:30a.m. - 1 p.m.
Cost: Free, but you must register here.

Please join this webinar on the special issue of the Journal of Youth Development.

Guest editors YD research associate Kate Walker and recently retired YWI director and faculty Joyce Walker, and Michelle Gambone will engage commentary authors YWI director Dale Blyth and Reed Larson in a discussion of the historical context and three themes for the 21st century:

• The impact of divergent perspectives on youth development,
• The value of translational scholarship, and
• The importance of leveraging systems support.

Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Date: Feb. 13, 2012

COST: Free, but registration is mandatory
Register: http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1052046

To read the current Journal volume discussed in this session: Fall 2011 issue of the Journal of Youth Development.

Through a mix of during school, afterschool, and online spaces, the Digital Youth Network (DYN) provides youth opportunities to develop and apply new media literacy in ways that are personally and academically meaningful to them. The DYN Learning Model is specifically organized to allow students to share, showcase, and critique media projects within the DYN community. Interactions between the learner, his or her peers, and adult mentors result in an environment in which the possession and demonstration of one's new media literacy increases status and social capital.

Nichole Pinkard, an associate professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago, and co-founder of Digital Youth Network will present the DYN model, provide examples of implementation in formal and informal contexts, and provide evidence of the longitudinal impact of participation in DYN on students' development as literate citizens.

Friday, October 28
9 a.m. - 12 noon
Free but registration required

Go here to learn more and register:
http://www1.extension.umn.edu/youth/training-events/events/digital-youth-network.html

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development and its Learning Technologies Media Lab, and Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Funders, stakeholders, parents and young people often talk about the desired outcomes of youth programs in very different ways. We know from a statewide survey of parents and youth in Minnesota that they want programs for various, primarily non-academic purposes, such as teaching the value of hard work and exploring interests. Many funders want to know whether learning opportunities beyond the classroom impact academic outcomes. How do we select and measure the many important outcomes for youth, programs, and systems in this area?

This symposium will focus on how to assess important non-academic outcomes such as the impact of such programs on youths' engagement in their own learning, their socio-emotional development, and whether they are thriving, contributing, and able to navigate effectively. Our speakers will examine how systems in Boston and Providence have studied such outcomes, as well as engage people in Minnesota who are thinking about these issues.

This event is presented in cooperation with St. Paul's new Sprockets network.

Presenters include:

• Chris Smith, Executive Director of Boston Afterschool and Beyond, who will talk about Boston's ACT Framework for Achieving, Connecting, Thriving as outcomes of an integrated learning system.
  
• Elizabeth Devaney, a consultant who has worked with Providence After School Alliance as well as CASEL-the The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, will talk about the new AfterZones evaluation by Public Private Ventures from a practitioners perspective.

Register to attend in person or online via Webinar:

https://www.rews.extension.umn.edu/rws4/rws4.pl?FORM=10-7-11_Inquiry_to_Impact

In the decade following the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, there have been at least 40 similar homicidal events at schools in other countries, as well as many other cases involving threatened and averted attacks. There is a compelling need to understand the developmental and social processes that have motivated so many youth to contemplate, threaten, and in some cases carry out, a mass murder at school.

Please join the Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency (PEAR) at McLean Hospital and Harvard University, along with the University of Minnesota Extension, for an online action dialogue on this important topic.

The action dialogue convenes a panel of experts in the field, all of whom contributed to the latest issue of New Directions for Youth Development, "Columbine A Decade Later: The Prevention of Homicidal Violence in Schools." Their combined scholarship refutes the common misunderstanding that extreme acts of violence are so rare and unpredictable that prevention is futile, and instead provides convincing evidence and a new direction for the development of comprehensive school safety and violence prevention measures.

Registration is free but necessary, so register today by clicking here.

Additional information available here.

The 4-H Study is a longitudinal study which began in 2001, through the support of National 4-H Council. Researchers at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University led by youth development scholar Dr. Richard Lerner, with the contribution of land-grant universities conducted the study. The 4,701 adolescents surveyed are racially and geographically diverse representing 34 states in the nation.

Research shows that youth development programs like 4-H play a special and vital role in the lives of America's young people. According to the latest findings in the second annual report from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, youth have the capacity to thrive when presented with resources for healthy development found in families, schools, and communities-regardless of their background, socioeconomic status, race, and gender.

Presented by Dr. Sharon Query
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Location: http://www.ndsu.edu/4h/training
Cost: $10

Please join us on Friday, March 11 for the next symposium in our ongoing series bridging research and practice in youth development: "Engaging older youth in out-of-school time: Applying research to practice," featuring Priscilla Little.

Formerly with the Harvard Family Research Project, Little has spearheaded efforts to promote effective education policies and practices to support children's learning and development through a holistic, integrated approach to learning in and out-of school. Little has more than 20 years experience in the education arena and in conducting educational research, and is currently an independent consultant. Her clients include national education research firms, state education agencies, and private foundations. She is also working with the Race to the Top Technical Assistance Network as the state specialist for Massachusetts. Additionally, she continues to serve on national research advisory boards and state after school boards, speaks nationally on the research and evaluation of out-of-school time (OST) programs and how they can complement in-school learning and development, and consults with other research and evaluation firms on selected topics in OST.

This presentation will describe promising research-based practices in working with middle and high school youth in OST programs, examining what programs can do to support participation, engagement, and positive outcomes. Given the recent growth of city-and state-level OST systems, the presentation will also include a discussion of the potential role of OST systems in supporting effective youth programming.

Memorial Hall, McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis
9 a.m. to 12 noon; registration begins at 8:30 a.m.
The event is free but registration is required.

Attend in person or online! To register:
http://www1.extension.umn.edu/youth/training-events/events/engaging-older-youth.html