If you hire consultants or may be considering hiring a consultant, this post is for you. Start with the following scenario…Let’s say you are the head of a football team and you want to win the season. You are not looking to get through without embarrassment; You want to ensure that your team becomes synonymous with excellent football.  

In the hustle-bustle of leading youth focused work, you are taking care of everyone else. Who takes care of you? It has to be you. Here’s how.

How do consultants and clients work together to support the broader mission of our field? This piece outlines five things we as consultants won’t do and sets a call for a new way to invite consultants, funders and clients into dialogue to support youth centered work.

As leaders in the education, nonprofit and youth development space, as parents, what can we do to ensure learning and learning spaces remain safe harbors of community, love and growth? Where kids can happily wear there rainbow sparkly sneakers? Here are my top three current ideas.

As leader-facilitators of change, we persevere not because of saviorism or even altruism, but because of sanity, logic, relationship and reciprocity. This article highlights the core practices we build and grow within ourselves to help us keep going.

In the spirit of transformation and with a touch of humor, we, the bold proponents of transformational capacity building, hereby declare our independence from deficit-based approaches. We embark on a journey of innovation, where we focus on building and strengthening the systems, structures, cultures, skills, resources, and power that individuals and organizations need to truly serve their communities.

In the realm of youth-focused organizational growth and development, it's critical to understand the unique roles played by research and evaluation firms vs. capacity-building orgs. They both have tremendous value and work well together—research sets up the launch pad and capacity-builders help you reach your destination!

Hear from smart nonprofit leader, Wendy Copeland from Goodwill Industries International.

In honor of those who have gone before us and in recognition of AfterSchool Professionals Appreciation Week, I wrote this poem.

Here are three simple innovations that youth-serving organizations can implement to save time and money and keep your staff happy.

Embrace various versions of yourself to be the whole leader you are. That’s how to start a new year.

Feeling like an outsider as a leader in your work? There is likely a reason for that. And also a solution.