Youth Development Educator Professional Development

Empathetic Management is a practical, human-centered workshop designed to help managers build stronger, more trusting, and more productive relationships with their staff.

At its core, Empathetic Management is about slowing down interactions and leading with intention. By learning how to ask thoughtful questions, listen with presence, and encourage without judgment, managers can create environments where staff feel safe to share ideas, navigate challenges, and grow in their roles.

Participants will explore how everyday conversations, check-ins, feedback moments, performance discussions, and conflict can either build trust or erode it. This workshop offers concrete tools for making those moments more meaningful and effective.

Participants will learn how to:

• Ask relevant, open-ended, and purpose-driven questions that invite dialogue rather than defensiveness

• Listen actively and attentively, allowing staff space to think, speak, and be fully heard

• Use silence intentionally instead of rushing to solve or respond

• Respond with empathy and support, even in challenging or high-stakes situations

• Encourage staff autonomy, confidence, and decision-making without judgment or micromanagement

Empathetic Management supports managers in moving from task-focused supervision to relationship-centered leadership, strengthening communication, increasing staff engagement, and fostering a healthier workplace culture for everyone.

Go Wild with Outdoor PLearning supports youth development educators and afterschool providers in using play-based, outdoor learning strategies to engage young people in exploring the natural environment. Participants experience activities firsthand, then reflect on how to intentionally apply them in youth settings.

This 2-hour STARS Approved training is designed as an immersive playtime experience; encouraging movement, experimentation, and connection, while modeling developmentally appropriate practices that align with youth development and program quality principles.

Workshop focus areas include:

• Using play as a learning strategy in outdoor environments

• Engaging youth in natural sciences, ecology, and conservation

• Supporting curiosity, observation, and inquiry through movement

• Creating inclusive, accessible outdoor learning experiences

• Connecting youth to place, land, and stewardship

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify key principles of PLearning (play-learning) and how they support youth development.

2. Demonstrate at least three outdoor, play-based activities that support learning about the natural environment.

3. Adapt outdoor PLearning activities to meet the needs of different age groups, abilities, and settings.

4. Apply strategies for facilitating safe, engaging, and inclusive outdoor learning experiences.

5. Describe how outdoor PLearning supports youth engagement, physical activity, and environmental stewardship.

Educators give so much of themselves to students, families, colleagues, and systems that rarely slow down. Indoor Forest Therapy for Educators is a restorative session that adapts core forest therapy principles for indoor and institutional settings, offering educators practical tools to settle their nervous systems and reconnect with themselves during the workday.

Rooted in forest therapy practices and informed by trauma-aware and relational approaches, this session brings nature-based mindfulness indoors recognizing that access to outdoor green spaces isn’t always possible. Through gentle sensory invitations, guided reflection, and intentional pauses, participants are supported in shifting out of chronic stress and into greater presence, regulation, and ease.

Rather than focusing on productivity or performance, this session centers care for the body, the nervous system, and the human behind the role of “educator.” Participants are invited to notice what helps them feel grounded, safe, and resourced, and to carry those insights into their classrooms and workplaces.

Participants will experience and learn how to:

• Engage in simple, indoor nature-inspired practices that promote nervous system regulation

• Notice signs of stress and overstimulation in their own bodies with compassion

• Use sensory awareness and breath to support grounding and emotional resilience

• Build micro-moments of restoration into busy school days

• Reframe self-care as a professional necessity, not a personal luxury

This session affirms a simple truth: educators need care too. By supporting educators in tending to their own nervous systems, Indoor Forest Therapy helps create healthier, more sustainable learning environments for both adults and students.

Bringing Forest Therapy into Afterschool introduces educators and youth development professionals to accessible, nature-inspired practices that support regulation, connection, and well-being in afterschool environments. Grounded in forest therapy principles and youth development best practices, this session offers practical ways to bring moments of calm, curiosity, and presence into everyday programming—indoors or outdoors.

Afterschool spaces offer a unique opportunity to slow the pace of the day and support young people in ways that feel relational rather than academic. This workshop explores how simple sensory invitations, reflective moments, and intentional pauses can help youth feel more grounded, supported, and connected—without requiring silence, stillness, or full participation from everyone.

Rather than adding new curriculum or rigid activities, this session focuses on how educators show up with youth. Participants will learn how to weave nature-based practices into existing routines such as snack time, transitions, group circles, and free play in ways that are flexible, consent-based, and developmentally appropriate.

Participants will learn how to:

• Apply forest therapy principles in afterschool and youth development settings

• Support youth nervous system regulation through sensory awareness and choice

• Offer invitations that encourage curiosity, engagement, and emotional safety

• Create calming moments without forcing participation or compliance

• Strengthen relationships, belonging, and connection through nature-inspired practices

This session emphasizes responsiveness, consent, and inclusion—recognizing the diverse needs, energy levels, and lived experiences young people bring into afterschool spaces. By integrating forest therapy principles into daily practice, educators can help create environments where youth feel supported, grounded, and free to be themselves.

Introduction to the Active-Participatory Approach. This workshop introduces the "active-participatory approach,” which is the foundational philosophy for all other Youth Work Methods workshops. In this approach, adults engage young people socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically as active participants in their own learning and development.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Giving youth materials is just the beginning; participants are introduced to strategies for incorporating active learning that helps create more powerful learning opportunities for youth.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

This workshop introduces communication techniques that help you build more supportive, youth-centered relationships. Participants learn how to ask effective questions, to listen actively to youth, and offer youth encouragement rather than praise.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Building an emotionally safe community of peers and adults is essential for youth to learn and develop as individuals. This interactive workshop will introduce participants to a variety of activities designed to support the community building process.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Cooperative learning is an excellent way to nurture youth leadership, build community, and keep things fun. This interactive workshop will equip participants with grouping strategies and ways to think about building cooperative learning into any program offering.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Participants learn a powerful and easy method that promotes youth engagement in planning, implementing, and evaluating activities and projects.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Participants are introduced to a step-by-step model for reframing conflict as well as general principles for conflict resolution.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Youth need structure and clear limits in order to feel safe. Participants analyze the level of structure in their programs and practice identifying and maintaining clear limits.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.

Research shows that quality programs incorporate youth input at both activity and organizational levels. This workshop will emphasize the importance of offering real choices and meaningful participation to youth, and nurturing youth leadership.

Part of The Forum for Youth Investment’s Youth Work Methods Series provided in partnership with School’s Out Washington.