Positive Youth Development: Empowering the Next Generation

Positive Youth Development also known as PYD is an international step towards the upbringing, engagement, and recognition of the youth of today productively.

The opportunities for the youth section will be to involve in organizing constructive works in their peer communities like schools, colleges, and family gatherings. 

In this manner, we can utilize their strength to turn into opportunities for fostering positivity and support in society. Skills like leadership and cooperation come into play. 

Objectives of Positive Youth Development 

Objectives for youth counselling services lie in removing at-risk conduct. Such programs aim to help minority youth make better lifestyle choices in terms of profession and relationships. 

The most vulnerable age group is 10-18 years. Similarly, this age group is promoted to practice healthy life skills free of addictions to alcohol tobacco, and squeamish sexual activities. Check out the list below for more details. 

• Violence, Unintended Injuries, and Resultant Mortalities 

Suicide, homicide, and unintentional injuries have been rampant reasons for mortality among adolescents of age 15-18 years. There have been racial discrimination and vehicular crashes as the prominent causes. While the latter is the highest among adolescents of 16-18 years. 

• Alcohol and Drug Addictions 

Adolescence is the age of mistakes as termed by many. So also researchers have reported illicit drug users addicted to marijuana, prescribed or non-prescribed psychotherapeutics, hallucinogens, cigarettes, and inhalants. 

Additionally, other unsafe practices are being followed by this group. Such as there are high rates of indulgence in risky unprotected sexual activity when intoxicated with alcohol and drugs.

This is not all. They have furthermore been pushed to drink and drive. These activities have been reported worldwide by all youth age people. 

• Reproductive Health 

The surge in hormonal levels is high in puberty age when girls and boys hit their reproductive age. So if not guided properly, there are fair chances of such adolescents being involved in sexual intercourse during their school or college days. 

Unprotected and unmindful sexual activity can lead to grave consequences that later on are very regretful. Medically, there is a high risk of catching hold of HIV/AIDS viral infection and other sexually transmitted diseases like Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and Chancroid.

These infections have long incubation periods but if detected early through clinical observance can lead to easy treatment and prevention. While if left undetected they can be fatal to both the victims. 

Teen live births and unsafe abortions represent the basic health issues faced by minority youth groups. Hence counselling for youth is a must. 

• Taking Proper Health Care 

The youth is the spine of any country. It is the one that is going to take the commitment for a growing economy. So what will happen if they are engulfed by chronic illnesses since childhood?

Will they be able to give their best? Nations like Japan promote more minors per parent because of their low population. Japanese live more so their population consists of a spaced-out number of adults. 

On the other hand, expanding countries like India with a big number of population have a gigantic resource of youth in their land. So if possessed and preserved, this same youth precinct can do miracles. 

• Social factors 

Social factors like poverty, discrimination based on caste, class, race, and category, and lack of proper education have put a backlash on the growth of a good breed of youth. They are being succumbed to worse situations where they land up in bad habits as discussed above. 

What does Youth Mean?

The class of humans has been classified based on their age group. In which 

• Childhood ranges from 0-9 years 
• Early adolescence from 10-14 years 
• Adolescence from 15-19 years 
• Emerging adulthood from 20-24 years 
• Transition to adulthood in 25-29 years 
• Adulthood after 29 years

Why is this section of society, the Youth, crucial?

I am not saying that we can overlook any section of society like the infants or the elderly for the youth. They have got their equal importance and are connected in many ways. After all, one doesn’t become an adolescent after birth. 

But as you may have by now known, adolescence is the age of spurting energy. You are capable physically and mentally to mend or create anything. So here is why our governments cannot ignore this treasure house. 

1. The 21st century is seeing the largest era of adolescence ever. All thanks to technology it has been able to attract the youth towards it. So we have got life-saving machinery and transport. Life expectancy has increased and the younger generation is more health conscious. 
2. Life-long consequences of what you today as a youngster. Your decisions can make or break your career. It is also true that the attempts made today serve as an experience for tomorrow. Everyone fails but one who has got the skills to redo the chore with more perfection survives. 
3. Splurging growth. You grow in terms of height, weight, and intellect. You consume more since your body metabolism increases. All the restructuring that’s done now will have long-term effects. 
4.  You are the fresh fruit of a tree. So you have all the fire stored in you. Therefore this is the best time to learn new soft and core skills to enrich your success rates in work and life. Behaviour is important when it comes to skills like crowd communication. 

Challenges Faced by the Youth? 

The youth is not protected from the wrath of societal issues like unemployment and poverty. The burden is still high as this is the raw age when everything seems dismantled.

You are new to the business and everyone sees you as naive. Other challenges faced by this section include- 

• Less stability at home and work. Their families start showing dependence on them and their income. Otherwise, the resulting nature of some youths takes them apart from their homes. The chaos and heated arguments in decision-making make the situation more vulnerable. 
• Failure, especially the first ones, leads to the promotion of addiction. Addiction to alcohol, junk food, drugs for entertainment, and tobacco smoking. 
• As said, unemployment is due to fewer vacancies. Degree-oriented studies do not give real-life skills. 
• Environmental degradation hasn’t helped at all. Rather traffic due to smoke clouds makes the most chaos. 
• Armed conflicts have been one of the reasons for the vanishing of this generation. 
• Due to this, there is a mass migration from one country to another of the youth. As you must have seen the case with the Ukraine-Russia Wars, where a lot of youth lost their lives due to the futile war. Ukraine’s economy was shattered and families had to migrate in search of safety. 

What are the latest Youth Development Programs? 

Talking about a developing country like India where there are a lot of scopes to improve and build, the youth shouldn’t hesitate to apply for some of the best counselling for youth fellowship programs.

Prestigious organizations run by the government and private sectors are coming forward to harness the power of youth into positive actions. Their only aim is to make the youth of India thoughtful of their rights and duties as a citizen. 

So let’s know about some of the high-impact programs running in India. Most of these programs support strong unique research startups and work integrated to eradicate any social issue.

They provide good pay, travel opportunities for youth to big educational institutes, and exciting hampers with job offers. 

1. Azim Premji Foundation Fellowship- 
2. Inlaks Fine Arts Awards, 21 
3. Funding for Research Proposals by Azim Premji University 
4. Teach for India Fellowship 
5. Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Research Grants 
6. Fellowship for Startups by NSRCEL collaborating with Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. 
7. Competition Programs for bio-entrepreneurs organized by C-Camp 
8. Acumen India Fellowship Program 

Read:
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How has Positive Youth Development Adopted Changes with the Current Generation? 

Change is the only constant that survives in the long run. So with time when technology, fashion, and food habits advanced, the fellowship programs also had to upgrade themselves.

So without a second word, let’s focus on what additional benefits you find in the latest version of youth development programs. 

1. The focus of counselling for youth agendas is now on the whole child. Instead of just focusing on one sector like either studying or sports, new agendas take care of the whole child’s development. 
2. Mother nature is our saviour of life. So fellowship programs have aimed to benefit both the individual and the environment through biosafety measures. Youth is promoted to think towards bringing more eco-friendly products and services into the market. 
3. The youth is recruited to focus on the developmental needs of the nation. Their challenges are solved more practically and economically. 
4. Engaging the Youth from all sectors is important. Both the urban and rural youth need to be provided with the same facilities and findings. The reach should be widened to be heard till the corner of every village. 
5. Adequate promotion of government and non-government fellowship programs so that no talent goes wasted. 
6. Each village has its assets and competencies which are now being taken seriously. 

Key Features of Positive Youth Development 

Positive Youth is always envisioned towards their goals, however difficult the circumstances. Similar is the case with the daughters of one of the greatest certified coaches, counselors, and authors in India.

Her elder daughter Ishani Singal is an Earthquake Resistant Structural Engineer working in the USA. While her younger daughter, Inayat Singal is pursuing MBBS. Both daughters are all-rounders in every field. One is an author and table tennis gold medalist too. 

To build strong competencies and skills and elevate the opportunities for youth.

1. Promote healthy relationships from all sectors so that the youth could freely get guidance from their role models. 
2. Engaging youth in society upliftment events for their contribution 
3. To activate the brain cells so that the youth is not only limited to the boundaries of his/her books. 
4. Fair access to all youth-friendly activities. 
5. Membership in youth development programs. 
6. Bring positivity to society’s norms. Reality should meet expectations and there should be no discrimination based on old norms. 

How does Youth Contribution Work?

The fellowship counselling youth programs support building an optimistic environment where the minimum bare support from all sections is widely supported. This is done by the following measures. 

1. Increased consent for letting your voice be heard by everyone. There should be no misunderstandings because misconceptions lead to the age gap between generations. Besides, there should be active participation in rule-making. 
2. Boosted participation in youth counselling services and approved organization of school activities, bates, cultural clubs, student programs, and community service. 
3. Youth Volunteering in several government-promoted schedules like marathons, vigilance weeks, and many more. These help in developing a sense of responsibility and crowd management. 
4. Academic and technical expansion through advancement in life and soft aptitudes. Widening the opportunities for youth to build a sense of compassion, serving, and passion. 
5. Family support is the core of any youth’s success. So every program aims to involve the family for encouragement to the youth in pursuing any career she/ he wants. 

What are the Key Skills For Positive Youth Success? 

Positive counselling for youth development lives in the evolution of key soft skills like cognitive skills besides physical strength. Some of them include: 

• Raised order thinking capabilities 
• Fluency in mass communication and interaction with people from different backgrounds. 
• Positive self-vision and eyesight for a brighter future. 
• Self-control and determination 
• Social skills

The favourable self-concept lies in bringing in self-confidence, a sense of well-being, self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-awareness, and optimistic beliefs. 

Self-control through delay in making impulsive decisions out of peer pressure, management of emotions, regulating attitude, and directing focus and concentration on a particular work at a particular time.

Improving opportunities for youth thinking talents through the practice of critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. 

Sweetening healthy relationships between different generations. To induce a sense of oneness, positive youth development programs also include parenting programs for the parents who are going to be their best life coaches and guides. There is fair support for adolescents who are without any family support. 

Youth counselling services are now available in various cities with teachers and guides from top-notch companies and institutes. Finding the best life coach that suits your personality and fulfils your lacunas may be easy if you start finding one today. Since an aware youth is aware of proper time management and doesn’t delay in mending for its future.