This paper explores the educational opportunities available to community youth development professionals in the United States. Given the complexity of the needs of today’s young people, it is both timely and prudent to increase the type, quality, and quantity of educational experiences available to community youth development professionals. Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and funding agencies have all begun to explore the importance of providing educational opportunities to community youth development professionals. The findings of this investigation indicate a need for a comprehensive multidimensional educational system to provide community youth development professionals with the knowledge and skills essential to successfully meet the challenges they encounter in their daily work.
Keywords youth workers - youth development - professional development
Support for the work on this article has come from multiple sources. The authors wish to thank the National 4-H Council, United States, for their funding of this research. In addition, the authors wish to acknowledge of the support they received from the Agricultural Experiment Stations and Extension Services related to children, youth, and families of the University of Arizona and The Pennsylvania State University.