6 min readFeb 4, 2025

A Call to Action: Establishing The Institute for Critical Youth Development

The Urgency of Now

Youth practitioners are the backbone of thriving communities, creating spaces where young people feel safe, build skills, connect with others, and grow. Yet, despite their vital role, many youth workers face their responsibilities in isolation, with limited access to the support and resources they need. Without opportunities to collaborate, share strategies, or develop their skills, the quality of youth programs declines. Ultimately, young people bear the consequences when their mentors, coaches, and instructors are stretched thin and unsupported.

The Institute for Critical Youth Development

To address these challenges, The Praxis Institute is working to fill the gap with the Institute for Critical Youth Development or ‘The Institute.’ The Institute is a place where youth workers learn practical skills, connect with experienced trainers, and build lasting relationships. Youth workers learn through hands-on workshops, small group meetings, and one-on-one coaching. These immersive experiences will help them build and apply the skills they need to run quality programs. With ongoing support, youth workers can explore new ideas, grow professionally, and critically impact young people’s lives.

The Challenges We Face | A Society Under Strain

Today, young people live in a divided world where many lack basic needs and struggle to find hope. They see:

Escalating global conflicts and war
Systematic attacks on targeted communities
Growing barriers to healthcare and basic services
A widening wealth gap that leaves more families struggling
Rising mental health crises and social isolation
Climate change that puts their future at risk

Youth workers must help young people navigate these challenges while building their capacity to create positive change. This requires new critical skills, deeper understanding, and stronger systems of support.

The Challenges We Face | Crisis in Youth Mental Health

Recent research reveals a generation facing unprecedented challenges:

40% of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
Approximately 50% of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with higher rates among young adults
44% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year
For those ages 15–24, time spent with friends in person has decreased by almost 70% over two decades.

Youth workers are often the first to notice when young people need help. Training is needed to support mental health, handle crises, and help young people build real connections in today’s digital world.

The Challenges We Face | Limited Organizational Capacity Undermines Quality

Youth organizations are stretched thin, focusing on running programs with minimal resources. Managing tight budgets, organizations often lack the internal capacity to invest in on-going professional development. When organizations do provide professional development, they typically rely on incomplete onboarding, over-stimulating topical training, or conferences with diluted workshops. These scattered approaches rarely align with the specific needs of youth workers or their organizations. This creates significant gaps in workforce preparation and limits their ability to implement equitable and quality programming.

The Challenges We Face | High Turnover and Burnout Threaten Quality Outcomes

Research from the youth development field shows:

The average turnover rate in youth-serving organizations is 40% annually.
57% of program providers reported difficulties with retaining staff.
55% of youth workers report experiencing emotional exhaustion
Organizations rely heavily on part-time staff and volunteers, with 58% having no full-time youth workers.

When experienced youth workers leave, they take with them relationships with young people and years of valuable experience that cannot be quickly replaced. This revolving door of staff turnover forces organizations to prioritize their limited budgets toward recruitment and onboarding at the expense of program quality. Organizations exhaust their limited budgets on repeated recruitment and training efforts, while program quality deteriorates during extended transition periods. The remaining staff must work harder, leading to more burnout and more people leaving.

The Institute | Cultivating the Next Generation of Youth Practitioners

The Institute is an immersive training experience designed to equip youth practitioners (e.g., youth workers, educators, social workers, counselors, mentors, etc) with the tools, strategies, and mindsets needed to create meaningful, transformative experiences for young people. Each session focuses on a distinct theme, building participants’ capacity to foster belonging, address systemic inequities, and sustain high-quality programs. Participants explore foundational concepts of identity, developmental relationships, and healing-centered practices, progressing to critical examinations of power, privilege, and systems of oppression. Sessions include practical topics such as: activity design, youth voice, participatory evaluation, work-life balance, professional growth, and organizational quality.

The Institute | Critical Skills for Youth & Youth Workers

The Critical Youth Development, 7 C’s framework, provides the intention and structure for all Institute programming and professional development. Our approach to traditional youth development emphasizes:

Competence: Youth workers develop young people’s ability to succeed by building practical academic, employability and life skills.
Confidence: Youth workers create spaces where young people explore and strengthen their identities, learning to trust their own capabilities.
Connection: Youth workers help young people build and maintain strong relationships with peers, families, and communities.
Character: Youth workers guide young people in developing their personal values and mindful decision-making skills.
Caring: Youth workers model empathy and help young people develop emotional awareness and support for others.
Contribution: Youth workers create opportunities for young people to take meaningful action in their communities.
Critical Consciousness: Youth workers partner with young people to explore, learn and critically analyze social systems and their power to influence change.

The Institute | Core Components

Capacity Building & Training

Liberatory & Critical pedagogy, emphasizing interactive, inclusive, and student-centered practices.
Resources, strategies, and practices for engaging young people in meaningful, inclusive, and equitable learning opportunities (i.e., quality).
Customized learning paths based on experience level, roles, and program areas.

Coaching &Technical Assistance

Youth practitioners receive individualized and tailored quality coaching.
Coaching connects participants with experienced practitioners to model and support effective practices.
Data-driven action planning.
On-site observation and feedback sessions.

Community of Practice (i.e., Community of Praxis)

Cohorts of youth practitioners meet to share expertise and challenges, solve problems, and celebrate successes.
Collaboration, networking, and resource sharing.
Individual reflection and professional growth.

The Institute | Investing in Quality

“Quality in, quality out” defines the heart of youth development: the caliber of support and training provided to youth workers directly shapes the transformative impact they can have on young people’s lives. Addressing burnout, isolation, and turnover requires urgent action. The Institute provides youth workers with high-quality training, collaborative communities, and meaningful mentorship, equipping them with the skills and support to meet the challenges of today’s world. By investing in youth workers, we ensure they have the tools to build equitable and quality programs that help young people thrive.

Institute Snapshot: What 5 Days Will Look Like