Thriving Through Developmental Relationships
A Capacity Building Experience Created with Partners for Partners
As we continue to work closely with youth-serving organization partners, we are seeing a need for more long-term learning experiences and support, with a continued focus on mindset shifts and practices that strengthen relationships and advance equity, while also preparing others to lead training opportunities within their own organizations—creating relational capacity to advance their work and mission—bringing Developmental Relationships to their communities.
The result is Thriving Through Developmental Relationships (TTDR), a multi-year partnership that blends a train-the-trainer model and communities of practice, while providing ongoing support focused on:
Catalyzing the effective use of Developmental Relationships across the organization
Building capacity and aligning staff with common language and relationship-building practices to strengthen developmental relationships and become a relationship-rich organization
Support to more effectively achieve goals of promoting youth thriving
Throughout the creation of TTDR, we worked with three national partner organizations, representing an additional 33 local organizations, on scope, application, objectives, and other needs to support youth-serving organizations.
Photos courtesy of State of Missouri.
"In Missouri, we believe in lifting up the strengths of young people. Our decade-long history with Search Institute has been an incredibly important part of that journey. Search doesn’t just teach about relationships, they live them. Their commitment to connection and growth mirrors our own, and it’s been a truly rewarding journey working together. Missouri is a big state, and we need a lot of passionate people out there spreading the message. That’s why we’re focused on building sustainable capacity across the state, and the TTDR’s Train-the-Trainer (ToT) approach is exactly what we needed. It gives us the flexibility to keep the momentum going and helps us expand the reach of developmental relationships into every corner of Missouri. After completing the Train-the-Trainer (ToT) two-day training—which is core to the TTDR experience—the energy was incredible! Participants felt empowered, excited, and ready to bring these tools into their own communities. It’s been a joy to see this work take root - and we can’t wait to see where it grows next!”
Susan Depue Bradford, Ph.D.
Missouri Institute of Mental Health
Search Institute has a long history of working with partners and combining research findings with the lived experiences of individuals and organizations that support youth thriving. The opportunity to collaborate with partners like the State of Missouri and Missouri Institute of Mental Health, a state-based research and technical support agency assisting prevention coalitions, on this learning experience offered a greater sense of what is needed in the field. We weren’t creating this learning experience for them, but rather with them, providing a long-term professional development opportunity that is not only shaped by research, but also the experiences facing young people and those who work together to ensure they thrive, with relationships wired into the organizations' DNA.
Our work lives in the dynamic intersection of scientific research, practitioner wisdom, and youth voice, with the commitment to expand and share the collective knowledge of what young people need to thrive.
