Our History

How we were founded
YDTRC was founded in the spirit of collaboration.  In 1993, the City Wide Youth Coalition, a network of youth-serving organizations in New Haven, and The Consultation Center, a training and consultation agency affiliated with Yale Medical School’s Division of Prevention and Community Research, joined forces to create an agency committed to serving the people and agencies dedicated to youth work. YDTRC has since become a leader in promoting youth development, training youth workers, advocating for a developmental approach to adolescence, and fostering youth-adult partnerships in Connecticut.

Why was YDTRC created?
YDTRC was founded as an intermediary resource for local organizations and for statewide initiatives in order to:

  • Provide staff training for youth workers and supervisors of youth programs.
  • Provide ongoing consultation and assistance to youth programs.
  • Broker services and leverage resources to support youth development initiatives throughout Connecticut.
  • Convene groups of stakeholders (funders of youth programs, community leaders, state agency representatives, etc.) to discuss mutual goals and interests in youth development.
  • Work closely with stakeholders to promote quality services for young people with diverse service providers and statewide networks.
  • Advocate for effective policies on youth issues, youth involvement in local program development and governance, youth rights, and youth leadership development.
  • Link interested parties to local regional, state, and national networks to help keep Connecticut well-informed and well-connected to best practices and current research findings.

YDTRC as a B.E.S.T. site 
In 1996, YDTRC became one of only 20 nationally designated Building Exemplary Systems for Training Youth Workers (B.E.S.T.) sites.  This national initiative provides technical assistance, training and networking to community-based systems as they work to strengthen their capacity to train youth workers in the concepts of youth development. As a B.E.S.T. site, YDTRC maintains an ongoing relationship with the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work (NTI), a division of the Academy for Educational Development, thereby keeping YDTRC on the leading edge of advances in youth development.

How We've Grown

The training and consultation model developed by YDTRC and implemented in the B.E.S.T. initiative was a critical component in the successful application in 1998 for a five-year demonstration grant from the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services .YDTRC collaborated with the Connecticut State Office of Policy and Management to continue to promote the use of the youth development framework with youth workers, diverse providers, and statewide networks. Importantly, YDTRC also facilitates the understanding of the framework to a group of youth funding organizations in order to sustain a focus on youth development across the state. Our Partners have been essential to our growth and work in the field of youth development.

YDTRC’s mission remains centered on promoting positive youth development by increasing the effectiveness of youth workers and youth-serving organizations. We provide numerous training and professional development opportunities to youth workers, supervisors and youth leaders across the state. See Professional Trainings. In addition, YDTRC accepts requests from individuals and agencies for Technical Assistance and Support Services, to help with program planning and development, and continues to expand its work with Special Projects.