CHAPTER 5: Building Pathways from Research To Practice: Preparing Youth Development Professionals through a Blended Online Master’s Degree Program

With over 6.5 million youth nationwide participating in some type of outof-school time (OST) programming, youth work has a tremendous scope (Foundations, Inc. & The After-School Corporation, Inc., 2010). Expansion and recognition of the emerging profession of youth development depends on accumulated evidence that justifies its effectiveness for promoting positive youth well-being (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczak, & Hawkins, 2004). Youth development professionals need a range of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations to develop the necessary readiness for providing high-quality youth work (Larson & Walker, 2010), and increasing attention has been devoted to properly preparing frontline youth workers as well as youth development leaders and professionals (Borden, Craig, & Villarrual, 2004; Garst, Baughman & Franz, 2014; Wisman, 2011; Yohalem, Pittman, & Moore, 2006).