YouthNet and a cross section of area agencies have agreed upon standards for children (ages 5 - 10) and for teen populations (ages 11 - 18). How did YouthNet take a very broad goal of defining standards of performance and translate into actionable concrete steps?

YouthNet began by assembling a Standards Development Process Design Team made up of representatives of multiple stakeholders: youth-agency directors and board members, middle managers, front line youth workers, parents, young people, and public and private funders. This group was charged with defining the YouthNet Standards Development Process. To do this the Process Design Team spent time on the following:
  • Confirming the work issue and parameters of the project set by the YouthNet Board of Directors including reaffirming the overall goal, decision making process and timeline

  • Designing a process that maximized participation by each stakeholder group

  • Identifying benchmarks for each step

  • Reviewing the work generated at each step of the process to ensure that it met with the project goal and parameters

Also on the Process Design Team were expert advisors Karen Pittman from the Forum for Youth Investment which is part of the International Youth Foundation, Takoma Park, Maryland and Richard Murphy and Bonnie Politz of the Center for Youth Development, Washington D.C. who regularly reviewed the groups work.

Click here to view a copy of our developing standards chart.






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