Blog - YIPA

Staff Advocacy Has Both Immediate and Long-Term Benefits

Staff advocacy is typically not part of an executive director or program manager’s strategy to increase support and funding for their youth programs. But not using this strategy hinders the public’s awareness of the importance of Youth Intervention and a program’s ability to build to capacity. For any youth-serving program to be successful, earning direct or indirect support from local …

Youth Intervention: Causes, Interventions, and Outcomes

The circumstances that lead to a young person needing Youth Intervention have a common theme…they are often linked to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These experiences include forms of abuse, neglect, or other family/household challenges. It is difficult enough even in a loving, caring, and supportive environment to help young people develop into healthy adults. Most young people who need Youth …

A Social Movement Campaign Is Needed for Youth Intervention

Youth Intervention has been ignored for too long. Not recognizing it as an essential service has jeopardized public safety, wasted endless dollars, and stolen happiness from our young people. Too often young people are dealt a hand in life that they did not ask for. No young person should be expected to grow up with abuse, neglect, unpredictability, or a …

Go-to Relationships Are Needed for Change

Each Minnesota legislator needs go-to relationships with Youth Intervention supporters in order to make informed decisions. In politics, it always boils down to relationships. Legislators make many of their decisions based on information from trusted constituents. Most lawmakers do not have someone talking to them about the value of Youth Intervention. As a result, they don’t prioritize Youth Intervention as …

Six Self-Evident Reasons Youth Intervention Is an Essential Service

Youth Intervention is an essential service. However, because society hasn’t embraced its importance we have serious problems as a result. We all know it doesn’t make sense to ignore a leaky roof and then spend even more money later on to repair the water damage. The same is true for Youth Intervention. We are wasting lives and money. Youth Intervention …

Political Partisanship Not an Issue for Youth Intervention

Political partisanship is most frequently blamed for legislative gridlock at both the national and state level. It’s frustrating for all of us when we know so much needs to be done. After living through another MN state legislative session, what I experienced is that Youth Intervention rises above this increasing tendency to place loyalty to party politics over service to …

Emotional Dysregulation at Taxpayer’s Expense

For young people and adults alike, emotional dysregulation creates a perpetual self-sabotaging cycle that won’t end without intervention. Because the system is set up for taxpayers to pay for Adult Intervention instead of Youth Intervention, it’s going to get worse going forward and at taxpayers expense. There are endless stories in the news each day about young people committing violent …

Youth Work and Business is a Match Made in Heaven

Youth work and business: It is a pairing we need to see more of. When young people develop their unique skills and talents, businesses benefit. Then why aren’t businesses a more significant source of support for the ‘boots on the ground’ youth-serving organizations? The lack of youth work and business partnerships is clear when looking at funding sources for Youth …

6 Reasons Why Legislative Advocacy For Youth Will Succeed

Legislative advocacy for Youth Intervention may be the key to solving most of the problems that are ailing communities everywhere. The good news is that legislative leaders recognize they need to do better at supporting young people. Like you, they see that too many of them are struggling. Youth Intervention taps into the universal desire for our young people to …

What Makes for Great Youth Workers

As a youth worker and now as executive director of YIPA, I have met many great youth workers. I have often wondered how these folks became great. Why are some people just so naturally good at helping our young people? Over many years, I have presented YIPA’s Friends of Youth Leadership awards to numerous exceptionally skilled youth workers. I have …

Youth Workers Are Natural Agents of Reform

With the political season in full swing already, it is clear that people are seeking reform. No other explanation can be given when you consider the popularity of Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. This political environment is a golden ticket for those of us in Youth Intervention. With a growing political movement clamoring for radical reform, now is …

How To Advocate For Young People

It’s a youth worker’s job to advocate for young people. When I first entered the Youth Intervention field in the early 1990s, there were many more funding resources for youth-serving programs than there are today. It was enough for me, as a youth worker, to focus just on directly working with young people. But today there simply aren’t enough financial …