News
Youth Development is Universal: BEST Travels to Singapore
BEST's Laurie Jo Wallace and Mo Barbosa meet with representatives from Jamiyah Singapore, one of the largest human service agencies serving the Malay community.
Feb 1, 2011 --- Do youth workers in other parts of the world face the same challenges as their counterparts in the U.S.? Do the ideals of positive youth development transfer across geographic borders and diverse cultures? BEST says yes!
Yayasan Mendaki, a non-profit based in Singapore that serves the mainly Muslim Malay community, contracted with BEST to provide training for youth serving practitioners and to help write a manual on positive youth development. Over the course of six months, BEST staff worked in partnership with Mendaki to develop the training and in the fall of 2009, HRiA spent a week in Singapore delivering a Youth Worker Certificate training, meeting with agency staff, and visiting with practitioners.
The training offered youth workers a grounding in the youth development approach, introduced them to common language, and provided information on childhood and adolescent development, cultural competence, gender and cultural sensitivity, positive youth outcomes, and other critical issues. BEST customized delivery and content for the audience, drawing on local examples and customs and sharing strategies from U.S-based experience.
Malay community participants represented youth serving, social service, education and workforce training programs and many area mosques, and gained useful skills and strategies from the training while sharing best practices and networking to build collaborations in order to support youth workers.
Through a learning exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Mendaki learned that BEST was the leading provider of professional development in youth work and reached out to Training & Youth Development staff. Building on this successful partnership, BEST and Yayasan Mendaki are currently pursuing further trainings for practitioners in Singapore.
Yayasan Mendaki, a non-profit based in Singapore that serves the mainly Muslim Malay community, contracted with BEST to provide training for youth serving practitioners and to help write a manual on positive youth development. Over the course of six months, BEST staff worked in partnership with Mendaki to develop the training and in the fall of 2009, HRiA spent a week in Singapore delivering a Youth Worker Certificate training, meeting with agency staff, and visiting with practitioners.
The training offered youth workers a grounding in the youth development approach, introduced them to common language, and provided information on childhood and adolescent development, cultural competence, gender and cultural sensitivity, positive youth outcomes, and other critical issues. BEST customized delivery and content for the audience, drawing on local examples and customs and sharing strategies from U.S-based experience.
Malay community participants represented youth serving, social service, education and workforce training programs and many area mosques, and gained useful skills and strategies from the training while sharing best practices and networking to build collaborations in order to support youth workers.
Through a learning exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Mendaki learned that BEST was the leading provider of professional development in youth work and reached out to Training & Youth Development staff. Building on this successful partnership, BEST and Yayasan Mendaki are currently pursuing further trainings for practitioners in Singapore.
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