Built on nearly a decade of expertise, PRYDE uses cutting-edge research to promote positive youth development.
To do so, PRYDE facilitates training opportunities and research-practice partnerships between three audiences:
1) Youth-Serving
Community Organizations
Professional Development Opportunities
A team of experienced psychologists, human development scholars, social workers, and community practitioners, PRYDE provides evidence-based, empirically-grounded training materials and workshops for youth-serving organizations – both within New York State and beyond. These training experiences are aimed to translate the latest research findings into tangible recommendations for those implementing positive youth development programs.
PRYDE has led trainings and workshops for various audiences – educators, administrators, and young people alike.
We have developed workbooks and other materials for those leading youth programs. Examples of these are available on our website (“Resources for Youth Workers” tab).
2) Youth Development Researchers
Research-Practice Partnerships
Inspired by the mission and teachings of Urie Bronfenbrenner, PRYDE is committed to fostering partnerships between leading youth development researchers and those serving young people in the field. As a result, PRYDE has been successful in developing sustained and mutually beneficial relationships between Cornell undergraduate students, faculty and staff, and youth-serving organizations.
Positioned within the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research in the Cornell College of Human Ecology, PRYDE links scholars from various disciplines (developmental psychology, community nutrition, and neuroscience, among others) with youth-serving partners in the community. Being part of the largest youth development organization in the U.S., New York State 4-H has been our most sustained and integral community partner. We have also expanded to include youth development organizations from various regions across the country – representing a diverse array of populations.
3) Undergraduate Students
Comprehensive Undergraduate Training in Community-Engaged, Translational Research
PRYDE has been successful in linking undergraduate students from the Cornell College of Human Ecology (CHE) with youth development research labs and youth-serving community partners. The PRYDE Scholars Program provides CHE undergraduates with two years of training in translational research, links these students with youth development labs across the Cornell campus, and provides opportunities for students to partner with community organizations. This competitive research program provides highly motivated undergraduate students with a thorough and practical understanding of community-engaged research, positive youth development, and the skills necessary to forge ongoing research-practice partnerships.
Given PRYDE’s expertise in this area, the program is honored to provide other universities and programs with the skills necessary to forge undergraduate research opportunities within their own contexts.