Welcome to Youth Work Matters! Whether you are a parent, neighbor, church member, teacher or concerned citizen, your work with youth matters. We all have a responsibility to help young people grow and develop positively. Our role as caring adults makes a difference in their lives. Our work with youth - both volunteer and professional - needs to come from an informed, intentional way of understanding their lives and the ways we support and promote their growth. Here you will have an opportunity to learn more about youth development. Each lesson is designed to give you the opportunity to think and reflect on the work you do with youth. These come from a solid grounding in research and many years of daily work with youth by youth workers across the country.