Positive Youth Development

Positive youth development, or PYD, refers to intentional efforts of other youth, adults, communities, government agencies, and schools to provide opportunities for youth to enhance their interests, skills, and abilities into their adulthoods. Youth development overall is the physical, social, and emotional processes that occur during the adolescent period, from ages 10 until 24 years. Simply speaking, it is the process through which young people acquire the cognitive, social, and emotional skills and abilities required to navigate life (University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development). Although the word 'youth' can be used synonymously with 'child', 'adolescent', or 'young person', the phrase 'youth development' or 'positive youth development' is usually used in the scientific literature and by practitioners who work with youth to refer to programs designed to optimize these processes. It is distinguished from 'child development' or 'adolescent development' in its focus on the active promotion of optimal human development, rather than on the scientific study of age related change.

Read more about Positive Youth Development:  Importance of Youth Development, Key Characteristics, Practices and Current Directions, Using Positive Youth Development, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words positive, youth and/or development:

    Regna regnis lupi, The State is a wolf unto the State. It is not a pessimistic lamentation like the old homo homini lupus [Man is a wolf to Man], but a positive creed and political ideal.
    Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)

    Now all the youth of England are on fire,
    And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    A defective voice will always preclude an artist from achieving the complete development of his art, however intelligent he may be.... The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it were a limb.
    Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)