This training is presented by The Professional Youth Worker. It's our mission to help you and your team build your skills and boost your passion for serving young people. Join us!
Talking Healthy Choices with Young People

- On-Demand Webinar
- Recorded on Thursday, October 22, 2020
- 1.5 hour training
- FREE for YIPA members
- $30 for non-YIPA members
- 96% approval rating
- Not a member? Annual membership is $124 for individuals or $300 for organizations. Join now or learn more.
Learners' Own Words
"Great examples and stories!"
"I'd like to see all of my colleagues engage with this material."
"Loved this training! I learned some skills I can even use for myself."
Your Training Description
Talking healthy choices with young people in ways they’ll be receptive to isn’t always easy. It’s easier to simply share information about what they “should” do or give advice. But without listening to or understanding their needs first, you risk pushing their motivation to change further out of reach. Fully listening to and clearly hearing a young person is one of the most important assets you can bring to youth work relationships.
Effective listening is the key to setting the stage for positive learning experiences for youth as you help them navigate their choices. You can create an atmosphere for growth by building self-awareness. Recognizing your own communication style will help you consider how to best engage youth in conversations about healthy choices and self-care.
Join us to explore tools and concepts of active listening combined with real youth work stories and experiences. You’ll go beyond theories to learn how to connect and communicate with young people about healthy choices in ways they’ll be more open to. You’ll learn how to talk with youth, how to effectively listen when they respond, and be able to give youth tools to expand their own ways of thinking to better understand themselves. You’ll also consider challenges youth, particularly youth of color, may face when making healthy choices and how to break down those barriers.
Your Learning Objectives
- Understand how to connect and talk with youth about making healthy choices
- Improve your active listening skills to understand what youth are communicating verbally and non-verbally
- Explore tools for helping young people recognize if their thinking is clear and unbiased or attached to old learnings and assumptions
- Consider barriers and challenges youth might encounter when trying to make healthy choices
Your Trainers

Sandy Naughton has been a Health Educator for 40 years with Health Start, now a program of Minnesota Community Care which operates 10 School Based Healthcare Clinics in Saint Paul schools. Sandy is currently the Manager of Health Promotion for MCC and continues as a Health Educator teaching Health and Human Sexuality in classrooms, providing one to one Health Education in SBCs and also facilitating Support Groups. Sandy co-authored Human Sexuality: Values and Choices, Understanding Sexuality and is currently working on a new curriculum. She is a Certified Childbirth Educator and is trained in Health Realization (now known as The Three Principles). Sandy is trained in Yoga Calm and has practiced yoga for longer than she can remember. She spends her work days with brave, caring, and brilliant people that teach her every day.

Connie Sheehan is the owner of PUSH Fitness, a St Paul based fitness center geared toward women of color. Connie has a bachelor’s degree in education and has worked in corporate for over 20 years. Connie is a certified personal trainer and holds numerous fitness certifications. She has recently worked with Minnesota Community Care as a personal trainer for students of color that deal with a variety of health issues. She brings a wealth of experience in communicating with youth. Her mission is to build a powerful sense of community and nourish healthy lifestyle changes, specifically for people of color, while providing motivation for people to move their bodies.
Your Competency Focus Area

Each of YIPA’s trainings are designed around a broad framework of eight youth work competencies. The competency focus of this training is: COMMUNICATIONS.
Gain communication flexibility which allows you to develop healthy, productive work relationships, engage in collaborative problem solving with youth, and improve individual and group facilitation.
Your Training Details
- On-Demand Webinar
- Recorded on Thursday, October 22, 2020
- 1.5 hour training
- FREE for YIPA members
- $30 for non-YIPA members
- 96% approval rating
- Not a member? Annual membership is $124 for individuals or $300 for organizations. Join now or learn more.
This training will count as 1.5 CE hours for most boards. Please contact your board directly with questions on submitting. You are encouraged to print or save this training information as a PDF for your records.