
The Academy to Go® is YouthBuild USA's portable conference. We can bring many of our tried and true courses to your organization, your computer, parent agency, school district, juvenile facility, One Stop, company or government agency.
We know that learning happens in many ways and that your time is a valuable commodity. As a result we've developed many ways for you to engage with the collective knowledge of the YouthBuild movement over these last 25 years. Our knowledge platforms are designed to be interactive and results driven.
Of course, being at one of our Transformation Institutes is a great option. However, many organizations want to train their entire staff without having to spend a large amount of money on flights and hotels. The Academy to Go can manage your next staff retreat, bring any of the courses below to your organization, or develop a customized consultation for your organization.
For more information or to schedule a course at your program contact: Jamie Ramola
Some of the organizations we have worked with:

Nome Eskimo Community
Emerson College
Urban Leadership Institute
YouthBuild Columbus Community School
Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority
Project Rebuild
San Joaquin County Office of Education
YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School
Latin American Youth Center
National Guard Child and Youth Programs
Seattle YouthSource
Generations, Inc.
Mclean County YouthBuild
South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation
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A Sample of Academy to Go Course Offerings:
Accountability and Relationships: How to Work with Young People
Having few positive relationships with adults is the number one reason why young people drop out of youth programs. Working with young people is no easy task. Our buttons get pushed and we can't always figure out how to support them while holding high expectations. In this very experiential course, each staff person will participate with a young person that they are having challenges with. You will build a stronger relationship with the young person you choose for this workshop. The course draws from prevailing youth development theory, Adultism concepts taught by John Bell, personal experience and research on Big Brothers Big Sisters carried out Public/Private Ventures. Come prepared to have fun, build relationships and learn theory and tools that work.
Leadership Development Made Real
25 years ago, before leadership development became a buzzword in youth work, the seed of the YouthBuild model was doing engaged leadership work with young people in East Harlem. One of the models they developed was the Policy Committee; a structured way to build leadership skills, while improving the quality of the program. Come learn a process that has been refined in hundreds of cities across America. We'll take leadership development from a great idea to a practical reality.
Learn the basics of promoting youth leadership from YouthBuild's 25 years of experience engaging young people in decision making and leadership skill building. In this dynamic, experiential and practical course, you'll learn how to make leadership development the central core for achieving education, civic engagement, career, and personal goals for young people.
Achieving High Attendance and Retention
High attendance and retention is one of the key measures of program or school success. Unpack the program conditions that promote transformation through high attendance and retention: emphasizing a strong program culture, positive relationships, opportunities for leadership and service, concrete services, and clear pathways to a brighter future.
Career Pathways for Graduate Success
To lift unemployed youth out of poverty and into meaningful, sustainable livelihoods, youth programs must effectively prepare graduates for careers in high growth, high demand industries. This participatory course will outline a framework for engaging students in career planning and preparation that opens doors to higher education, career ladders, income growth, and meaningful lifelong work. Skills assessment, sectoral partnerships, work readiness curricula, regional economic analysis, and career asset building will be examined. Participants will assess their program's career development practices and outline an action plan to improve graduate outcomes.
The Mental Toughness Experience
In this course, you will experience a demanding, rigorous, and caring immersion program utilizing physical, mental, and emotional challenges to facilitate the transition of youth from street culture to a program culture of accountability, possibility, and high expectations.
Respect for Life, Inc. specializes in training designed to produce human transformation in youth and adult populations lacking in personal, social, and academic development; who have been historically denied an opportunity to develop a mastery of life skills. The program represents a unique form of socio-cultural training that seeks to develop a positive philosophy of life. Group interaction, with expertise in the proper way of handling people, serves as the cornerstone of its success.
Impact initiatives for wayward youth have been seen as an age old remedy to address disciplinary oriented problems, common in deviant (criminal) or anti- social behavior. It is Respect For Life's philosophy that this concept has great merit but has historically lacked the key elements and components necessary to create youth transformation. Most Impact-oriented programs for youth aged 14 - 21 focus on military training and compliance procedures as the cornerstone of their approach to turning youth around, instead of an approach that includes the procedure of military compliance; while rooting the crux of the training in self improvement and human development.
Respect For Life Educational Services has serviced more than 10,000 young adults with the Planet Self Mental Toughness training while having worked with more than 70,000 youth and adults in Respect For Life training programs throughout the United States and Great Britain. This training has proved to be the most successful in turning self destructive behavior into a non existent phenomenon in youth and adult populations, and it has consistently surpassed the desired outcomes for agencies whose clients have been deemed the most difficult to work with. Participants are held accountable at every turn while being tested, tried and motivated and encouraged the whole way. Respect for Life personnel carry a no - nonsense attitude, a zero level of tolerance for negativity, and an abundance of passion and commitment to human development.
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YouthBuild Build UPS Building a common language about learning and program culture Understanding the learning process
Innovation and practical teaching strategies that engage at-risk learners
Leadership of the student, teacher, and program
Delivery of program content, context and expectations
Unity
Progress Standards of achievement
Tired of going to education trainings that do not address the issues that apply to your student population? This training is for the educators who have sat through endless trainings listening to suggestions and theory that do not apply to our student demographic. This training is for the educator who works with at-risk learners in a non-traditional academic program.
This interactive training focuses on understanding the process of learning for the at-risk learner. The training helps participants learn classroom and program strategies to motivate, engage and deliver academic content to at-risk learners in a non traditional academic program. Learn classroom strategies that address at-risk learner issues such as learned helplessness, learner readiness, lack of grade level academic skills, self- efficacy, disruptive behavior, and lack of academic and program engagement. Training content focuses on interactive cognitive teaching strategies that help participants understand and manipulate the learning process for their classrooms so that students can understand material, transfer knowledge, and learn to build independent academic skills that will ensure program and life success. Unique at-risk educator issues such as preventing burn out, balancing professional needs, and establishing personal and professional boundaries are also addressed. The strategies addressed are utilized in an interactive hands-on approach to allow participants to engage in the learning process and thoroughly explore solutions and strategies.
Outcomes, Data, and Success!
With all this talk about outcomes, how are we to make real changes in our programs to increase our outcomes? In this course, directors, program managers and other leaders will learn how to align their entire organization around achieving high outcomes for young people. We'll explore the differences between activities, outputs and outcomes and learn practical tools for incorporating data and outcome planning into our day-to-day work.
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Retreat Package
Planning a staff retreat but don't have the time? Let the Academy to Go develop a personalized retreat for your organization. We'll hire the facilitator, coordinate the logistics, and get your staff ready for the coming year.
For more information or to schedule a course at your program contact: Jamie Ramola
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