Do

After taking the assessment and planning for behavior support policies, the next step is to implement policies, practices and programs that contribute to a culture that supports behavior. The tools outlined below are a combination of new, and familiar BGCA resources. Behavior support is an ongoing process that requires continued engagement from Youth Development Professionals at all levels. Each of the tools referenced helps contribute to creating a Club or Youth Center experience that supports and responds to behavior in ways that establishes emotional safety and builds social-emotional skills.

Key Terms

Behavior is an observable action and form of communication.
Behavior support is a process of understanding what youth are communicating with their actions and using that information to adjust their environment and teach skills that promote positive behavior.
For deeper context, refer to the 5 Guiding Principles of Behavior Support.

Policy Tools

Behavior Support

Effective behavior support starts with effective policies. Review your Club or Youth Center’s current behavior support policies and protocols by using the Plan section of this toolkit.

Behavior Support Policy Sample provides a sample behavior support policy from a local Club that follows the process outlined in this toolkit.

Equity & Inclusion

Equity and inclusion are core components of building a Club or Youth Center environment that supports youth behavior. In order to fulfil our mission, Clubs and Youth Centers must create safe, positive and inclusive environments for youth of every race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status, religion or cultural belief. When we create inclusive environments at our Clubs and Youth Centers, we ensures that youth feel safe, represented, and accepted by the Club community, and able to participate in meaningful ways. This feeling of emotional safety and sense of belonging supports positive behavior.

Disability Inclusion Sample Policy & Guidance provides sample language that Clubs and Youth Centers can use to draft equitable and inclusive policies.
Behavior Support – Native Adaptation provides guidance for responding to and supporting youth behavior in Native communities.

Practice Resources

Training

Youth Development Professionals are our most valuable resource when it comes to supporting youth behavior. Youth attend Clubs and Youth Centers for the safe and supportive relationships they form with the people there. They continually look to staff for guidance, expectations, and feedback on their actions. Invest in providing ongoing staff training and development opportunities so that staff can respond with confidence and understanding to youth behaviors.

Creating a Culture of Learning provides guidance on how to strengthen your Clubs ability to provide ongoing, consistent professional development opportunities for staff at all levels.
Behavior Support Training Playlist outlines suggested foundational, and topic focused trainings for Youth Development Professionals to grow in their ability to support youth behavior.
Social & Emotional Development Training Playlist outlines social and emotional (SE) skill building courses for Youth Development Professionals so that they can better model positive behavior, and support youth behavior.
Trauma-Informed Training Calendar provides access to upcoming trauma-informed professional development experiences.
Trauma-Informed YouTube Playlist contains a series of micro-learnings on topics like Becoming Trauma-Informed, Race-Based Trauma, Staff Self-Care, and more. These short videos are perfect for staff training days
Trauma-Informed Practices in Your Club Staff Activity is a professional development experience designed to help staff identify trauma-informed practices they already do, and opportunities for growth and improvement. Trauma-informed practices help to create an environment for youth that fosters positive behavior, growth, and healing.

Emotional Safety

Behavior support starts with meeting the physical and emotional safety needs of youth and staff. When youth don’t feel safe, they are often unable to make decisions using logic and instead react based on their emotions. It is important that youth feel seen, heard, and validated in their identities, feelings, and ideas.

Trauma-Informed Program Checklist is a checklist to help you assess if your programming and youth activities are trauma-informed, emotionally safe, and free of triggering experiences.
Common Trauma Triggers provides and overview of some common environmental, facilitator, and activity experiences that can be triggering for youth that have experienced trauma. It also provides an suggestions for how to adjust your practices to make them more trauma-informed.
Emotional Check-Ins are a simple tool that YDPs and youth can use to pause, reflect, and identify their emotions so that staff can better understand and meet their needs
Group Agreements are a shared vision that youth and YDPs create to build an emotionally supportive and safe environment at your Club or Youth Center by bridging the gap between how people in a Club are feeling and how they want to feel.
Meta-Moment is a tool, developed in partnership with Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, that staff and youth can utilize to pause when they are feeling strong emotions before making decisions about how they will react.
Creating An Emotionally Safe Club, Youth Voice, and Ask-Listen-Encourage are all trainings that can be found on Spillett that build the skills necessary for creating an emotionally safe Club experience for youth.

Equity & Inclusion

Equity and inclusion are essential when developing Club or Youth Center policies, but must also be a part of everyday staff practices. These resources support Club professionals in developing an equitable and inclusive Club environment that supports and affirms youth’s identities, cultural backgrounds, and beliefs.

Program Basics Inclusion Guidelines provide Youth Development Professionals with clear examples and guidance on how to demonstrate a commitment to inclusion in your Club or Youth Center.
Top Tips for Inclusive Clubs, Inclusive Club Goals, and the Inclusion Checklist for Clubs are all tools designed to assess and improve your Club’s current inclusive practices.
Serving Youth with Autism is a guide designed to help Clubs and Youth Center professionals better understand and serve youth with autism and their families.
Examples of Possible Accommodations outlines recommended accommodations for youth with developmental disabilities, visual impairments, neurological or physical considerations, speech and language delays/disorders, hearing loss or impairment, social-emotional disorders, and learning disabilities.
Serving LGBTQ Youth is a toolkit designed to create understanding, introduce inclusive language, and outline recommended practices for supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.
Cultural Responsiveness & Inclusion, and How Unconscious Bias Affects Your Work are trainings designed to help staff reflect on their current approach to inclusion, and learn new practices that support an inclusive and culturally responsive environment for youth.
Building Supportive Relationships for Youth with High Social-Emotional Needs, Creating a Sense of Belonging for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Designing Club Environments to Support Sensory Needs, and Supporting Youth with ADHD through Meaningful Interactions are trainings provided by Kids Included Together on Spillett University, that will help Youth Development Professionals increase their understanding of youth with varying abilities, and skills and approaches for supporting them in the Club environment.

Caregiver Engagement

When it comes to behavior, gathering meaningful information from caregivers is critical to responding to youth in ways that value their family and culture. Culture plays a central role in establishing social norms, which in large part determine our ideas of acceptable and unacceptable actions. It is important to gather information and build relationships with caregivers to better understand and support youth behavior.

10 Tips for Engaging Caregivers provides simple ways to proactively build relationships with families.
Family Engagement Planning Guide and Family Engagement Toolkit provides helpful information on how to partner with caregivers to better support the youth you serve.
Gathering Information From Families, 5 Questions to Ask Families, and Case-by-Case Checklist all provide guidance for Youth Development Professionals on how to gather meaningful information for families and caregivers.
Concerning Behavior and Caregiver Support outlines helpful tips and strategies for staff when partnering with caregivers and families about youth behavior.
Release of Information Template is a template for Clubs and Youth Centers to use when sharing information about youth with external providers. Youth and family information should remain confidential unless a release of information is signed.

Behavior Support

Supporting Positive Behavior

Group agreements are one of the best ways for staff to promote positive behavior because they use a youth-driven process to create a set of shared expectations between staff and youth.
Recognition is another key way to support positive behavior is through the use of intentional recognition. Recognition helps youth get a clear understanding of what positive behavior looks like and encourages them to continue to engage in those actions in the future.
Promoting Positive Behavior is a training that provides clear guidance on best practices for supporting positive youth behavior.

Responding to Concerning Behavior

6 Steps to De-escalating Behavior Guide and training provides Youth Development Professionals with easy to use, step-by-step guidance on how to de-escalate concerning behavior.
6 Steps to Reframing Conflict Guide and training provides Youth Development Professionals with easy to use, step-by-step guidance on how to effectively respond to and reframe conflicts.
The Restorative Roadmap is a tool, developed in partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, that provides Youth Development Professionals with easy to use, step-by-step guidance on how to restore relationships after a conflict occurs.
Creating A Simple Behavior Plan and the Youth Support Plan Template guide staff in developing strengths based behavior support plans to better support youth needs.
Viewing Behavior as Social Emotional Development is a training designed for Club Managers to learn concrete strategies to support staff in responding to youth behavior, and a practical approach for creating a culture of behavior support in your Club.

Responding to Unsafe Behavior

Unsafe Behavior Policy Template is a guide that you can use to develop your Club or Youth Centers own unsafe behavior policy.

Program Activities

Structure & Routines

Establishing structures and routines with youth is essential to creating a culture that supports youth behavior. Structures and routines lay the foundation for a safe environment that supports young people. They provide both youth and staff with a clear understanding of what can be expected at the Club. When youth know what to expect, and the routine for engaging in various Club activities is clear, it’s easier for youth to demonstrate positive behavior.

BLUEPrint & ProgramBasicsPlanner.com are both tools designed to guide Youth Development Professionals in developing programs, structures and routines using clear examples, and fillable templates.
Gamesroom, Assemblies, Transitions and Gym & Field Playbooks are all tools designed to assist Club professionals in developing clear and consistent structures in routines for youth in any physical space, time of day, or Core Program Area of a Boys & Girls Club or Youth Center.
Group Agreements are a shared vision that youth and YDPs create to build an emotionally supportive and safe environment at your Club or Youth Center by bridging the gap between how people in a Club are feeling and how they want to feel.
Structures & Clear Limits, and Promoting Positive Behavior are two trainings that will help staff build the essential skills they need to establish structures and routines in the Club environment.

Social-Emotional Skill Building

Social-emotional skill building promotes positive behavior by enhancing a youth’s ability to regulate their emotions when facing challenging situations, express their needs to others, maintain healthy relationships with staff and peers, and make responsible decisions when faced with a challenge.

BGCA offers both social emotional (SE) targeted skill building curriculum, as well as SE integrated skill building into all newly released targeted programs.

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is a 10-session targeted program focused on building three cognitive behavior skills most linked to helping youth avoid negative thought patterns and negative behaviors: self-regulation, impulse control and stress management. Participating youth will build an effective toolbox for self-management and coping skills.
Play Breaks 2.0 is a guide to help you add healthy movement and social-emotional skill building to any program space.
Emotional Wellness Planning Guide includes tips for facilitating emotional wellness activities with youth, a list of emotional check-in examples, and activities that allow youth to learn, practice, and apply the social-emotional skills of self-awareness and self-management.
Meta-Moment, and Emotional Check-Ins include high yield activities that teach youth to sense what they are feeling, pause, and choose a coping skill that helps them align with their vision of their best-self.
Social Recreation is a social-emotional learning program that builds the skills a young person needs to make healthy choices. The program consists of six thematic units of five sessions each that develop a young person’s relationship with themselves, relationship with others, emotional regulation skills and responsible decision-making skills.
Youth for Unity is a program that provides that build the capacity of local Clubs to help members appreciate themselves as unique and special individuals; understand our society’s diversity; recognize bias and unfairness; and take personal leadership in confronting bias.
Growing Up Black is a discussion guide designed to help Black boys process their emotions and talk about their feelings in response to video clips and prompts covering topics such as racism, being Black in America, and masculinity.
SMART Girls Native Adaptation is a program that aims to assist Club staff in tailoring the SMART Girls Program to be culturally relevant and responsive to the unique strengths and needs of Native girls in their Club. The program also helps build social-emotional skills.

Additional Resources

Mental Health

Mental health is a component of overall wellness that focuses on youth’s thoughts, feelings, and their behaviors. Sometimes youth may need additional support to help them be successful at your Club or Youth Center. This may include targeted programming to help them build skills or referrals to external agencies.

Talking to Your Child or Teen About Mental Health is a discussion guide for parents and caregivers to talk about mental health at home. The guide includes conversation starters, how to approach and talk with teens, and how to get help.
Teen Mental Health Discussion Guide is a resources designed to help teens talk about and get support for mental health. Topics include stigma surrounding mental health, how it affects those suffering from mental illness, and what teens can do about it.
Intensive Interventions Guidance is a resource to guide your Club or Youth Center in providing targeted supports to youth in need of counseling and case management services.
Mental Health Resource List provides a list of national resources that will help you increase awareness around mental health, and access mental health services in your area.