NCY Approved Frontline Youth Worker Competencies includes resources that can be used in the recruitment and retention of frontline youth workers.  Below you will find a variety of tools that can be downloaded for free and used for your organization's professional development.

Frontline Youth Development Worker Competencies

The National Collaboration for Youth has established a common set of core competencies for paid and volunteer staff who work with youth. The intent of the Collaboration in developing the core competencies, which is based on similar lists developed by individual agencies and others, was to identify those elements common to virtually all youth-serving agencies. The list of ten competencies applies to front-line youth development staff that may be fulltime or work as little as two hours a week. Each competency has several examples to guide organizations.  Click here to view the Youth Development Worker Competencies.

Frontline Youth Worker Observation Assessment Tool

The National Collaboration for Youth is pleased to release two new assessment tools to accompany the 10 competencies for front-line youth workers. The longer tool can be used in multiple ways, for example, as a training outline to assist trainers in describing an organization's expectations for youth worker behavior and attitudes.  The second tool is short - designed to be carried around and used on the job.

View the long version of the Observation Assessment Tool by clicking here.

View the short version of the Observation Assessment Tool by clicking here.

Selecting Youth Development Workers - Sample Interview Questions

These sample interview questions are based on suggestions from 130 surveys from youth workers and competencies for front-line youth workers developed by the National Collaboration for Youth.  They begin with some general questions you may want to ask of candidates followed by questions that relate to the NCY competencies for Youth Workers.  Click here to downlad the sample interview questions.