Helping Youth Thrive

I had the most lovely of surprises this week when Dr. Shauna Tominey stopped by my office to give me a copy of her hot-off-the-press new book entitled Creating Compassionate Kids: Essential Conversations to Have with Young Children. I can’t wait to read it, and I hope you will too! Dr. Tominey is a parenting education specialist at Oregon State University who, like me, is fascinated by the process of human development, especially in understanding the things that help – or hinder- positive development. Also like me, Dr. Tominey has a keen desire to ensure that the important research generated through the sciences of learning and development is shared with others and put to good use making a difference in the lives of youth and families.

One of the greatest things about my position as a 4-H Youth Development specialist is that I get to live in that liminal place between research and practice, which means I work daily with youth development practitioners as they work directly with youth, families and communities. On the academic side, I also get to work with and learn from lead researchers who generate the critical information we need to do our youth development practice well. Continue reading →

Practitioner Tip Tuesday

By Guest Blogger Mike Knutz, 4-H Educator Yamhill County, Oregon

Growing up with three brothers on a small farm, my parents would often echo the phrase, “Many hands make the work light.” Now as a youth development educator, I continue to live this mantra as I work with teens in our 4-H Camp Leadership Program. This program prepares youth to serve as camp counselors through training in positive youth development, leadership, teamwork, and communication. I have been amazed at how the annual camp evaluations can motivate our counselors to step up their game. Continue reading →

Each year as the Season of Busy begins to wind down, I select a new biography to read in the coming year. Last year I chose a marvelous and inspiring biography of Beatrix Potter (by Linda Lear) whom I learned was far more than just the author and illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other children’s books. In fact, Potter’s life was so complex and interesting, beginning set against the back drop of Victorian England, and ending as a respected sheep farmer and conservationist in the Lake District, it took me most of the year to make it through the book.

What I find fascinating about biographies is the detail, the back story, to the person described in the book. Invariably, these stories are ones of struggle, determination, and setbacks, that are reflective of the personal grit we explored in this blog in the past few months. While the stories are typically ones of eventual success, it is what happens in between the beginning and the fame that is most interesting to me. Continue reading →

This morning began like most mornings as I awoke at 5am and headed out the door with my dog Romey to meet my friend and colleague, who is also my neighbor, for our morning walk. Before Roberta moved to our neighborhood, and long before I had Romey, I still walked in the early morning by myself. Perhaps there is a little motivation in that our walk circles by Starbucks, but I am not one to judge or deny coffee as a motivator for getting going each day!

I have been walking before dawn since I can remember, and one thing I often tell myself is that if I can maintain walking through the darkest days of the year, I Continue reading →

I don’t know about you, but this Season Of Busy is beginning to catch up with me. No matter how determined I start into late November planning not to get too busy, I seem always to end up in the same busy place. I think my inability to stick to my non-busy plan is stuff for another post, however!

The first thing that seems to go when the Season Of Busy descends is my (fairly) strong commitment to daily stretching. As one of the leading generation that has spent most of my professional life hunched over a computer, starting way before we knew about the ergonomic principles that are supposed to help us, I realized I needed a daily stretching routine if I was to be able to do all the other things I love to do that do not involve sitting at a computer. Continue reading →

Helping Youth Thrive

Putting the 4-H Thriving Model into real world practice

On Grit and Goals

On Hands to Larger Service

Practitioner Tip Tuesday

On the Root of Thriving

On Growing Hope

On Stretching to Develop Grit

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