Youth Leadership

Empowering Youth, Making Change

Do you want to empower youth as trainers, advocates, and change makers? Ask the experts!

YTP is a model program for positive youth development, and we are regularly approached by organizations seeking information and advice on integrating empowered youth into their activities. Over ten years, we’ve worked with hundreds of young people, honing our skill set, fine-tuning our approach, and polishing our curricula. We’ve also participated in numerous trainings, conferences and events, sharing best practices in youth development and leadership.

The Y.O.U.T.H. Training Project (YTP) can help you develop youth leadership by

  1. Training youth as facilitators, trainers, curriculum developers, focus group leaders, public speakers, and coaches.
  2. Training youth in professional development skills such as time management, dealing with conflict, critical thinking, confidence building, giving feedback, and making program and policy recommendations.


We always begin with the premise that youth are inherently talented; by infusing positive youth development into every aspect of our work, we bring out and develop youth leadership skills and potential.  Projects that we’ve worked with include Youth in Mind, Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaboration, and Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition.

If you want to empower youth as trainers, leaders, and change makers, email us!

Thanks to YTP Technical Assistance, the Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition evolved into a youth-led organization that not only advocates for improvements in the foster care system, but also trains child welfare professionals to implement change. During our multi-year collaboration, we trained Hawaii foster youth in designing curriculum and delivering training to child welfare professionals.

By bringing California and Hawaii foster youth together, we also stimulated peer mentorship and cross-cultural communication. Youth participants, though linked by their common experience as foster youth, also learned to recognize and value cultural differences, making both organizations stronger. To this day, both programs incorporate practices learned from the other, from setting high expectations to the importance of social time in building trust and community.