Shaping America's youth beyond the classroom
ASU event highlights the people shaping young people's lives
Jason G. Green, author of "Too Precious to Lose," gives the opening remarks at the Youth-Serving Workforce Solutions Initiative event and introduces the first panel at the ASU Barrett & O’Connor Washington Center in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy Hager Sharp
When evaluating a student's educational journey, responsibility for their learning and development is often attributed primarily to the educators who supported them from kindergarten through high school graduation.
Yet teachers are only part of the network of adults who help young people thrive. Coaches, mentors, after-school staff, counselors, faith leaders and other youth-serving professionals all play an important role in shaping students' growth, well-being and future success.
“We often talk about young people as if they’re shaped by programs, but young people are shaped by people,” said entrepreneur and author Jason G. Green. “They’re shaped by the coach who sees potential before they do, the mentor who refuses to give up on them, as well as teachers who challenge them.”
This often overlooked ecosystem is known as the youth-serving workforce. And to give credit where it's due, the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Arizona State University recently hosted The Youth-Serving Workforce: An Economic Engine for Communities Across the Country at the Barrett & O’Connor Center in Washington, D.C.
The event brought together educators, youth development professionals and community leaders for panel discussions on the role of this workforce, including how society and policymakers can better support this workforce as artificial intelligence reshapes career pathways.
“The youth-serving workforce doesn’t just prepare young people for the future, it prepares the workforce itself,” Green added. “Because the people who are doing this work are developing exactly the kind of human skills that become more valuable in this rapidly changing world. The value is here; the question is whether society is willing to see it.”
Beyond mentors and coaches, the youth-serving workforce includes professionals working in community-based organizations, including programs such as the YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Panelists noted that roles within the youth-serving workforce are often perceived as temporary or transitional positions and that these professionals should be more widely acknowledged as skilled practitioners who provide critical developmental experiences for our nation’s youth.
“We have to treat the youth-serving workforce as the profession that it is,” said Tay Moore, research and policy associate at the Aspen Institute. “It’s not a stop-gap job. It’s not just the individuals who entertain children. It’s critical economic and civic infrastructure, and we have to see it that way, we have to invest in it that way and treat it for this critical role that it plays in our society.”
Communities that invest in this workforce often see multiple benefits beyond just helping to develop skills among local youth — it also helps develop transferable skills among tutors and mentors that can be applied to a career as an educator or other career pathways.
“There is a return to the K-12 system and community system,” said Jennifer Bronson, managing director of learning programs at Accelerate. “That tutor now has a meaningful pathway potentially to teach at that school, and they have exposure to teaching the curriculum. So it’s not just an engine for academic outcomes but also economic ones.”
As artificial intelligence continues to be integrated into the classroom and beyond, panelists rejected the notion that this technology may decrease the importance of the youth-serving workforce. Instead, they argued that individuals in this sector learn critical human-centered skills that employers increasingly identify as lacking among today’s workforce.
“What we’re hearing from employers is that they’re looking for students with durable skills, the human skills, the critical thinking and metacognitive skills that they’re not seeing currently with kids.” said Cameron Benham, policy associate at InnovateEDU. “How do we use artificial intelligence to support that skills development … in a way that is human centric rather than outsourcing it to a tool?”
While AI may change how people learn and work, the need for human connection and mentorship will remain constant. As communities prepare the nation’s youth for an increasingly complex future, panelists argued that strengthening the youth-serving workforce should be viewed not as an option, but as a necessity.
“We can’t sustain ourselves as a country, we can’t sustain ourselves as a world moving forward if the next generation isn’t prepared,” Moore said. “And who are the individuals who prepare those young people every day? The youth-serving workforce.”
For more information on Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation’s youth-serving workforce solutions, visit https://education.asu.edu/youth-serving-workforce.