Many times 4-H Youth Development Agents feel they go from one activity to another activity without understanding the depth of what they are teaching. This leads to employee distress and burnout and and a lack of engagement from Agents, Assistants, and Collaborators. 

The Kentucky 4-H Youth Development Program designed the 4-H Youth Development Institute (YDI) in 2016 to address this issue. YDI is a 12-month intensive educational experience focusing on ensuring 4-H Professionals understand "Why we do What we do" instead of just doing activities. There are six two-day sessions across the program year. Each session deals with an aspect of positive youth development programming, from design to implementation to assessment and evaluation. 

The YDI Program is geared toward 4-H Youth Development Professionals who has successfully completed one year of programming. The participants must have the approval of their direct supervisor in order to participate. 

There is an overall coordinator for YDI, but the individual sessions are conducted by qualified Extension Specialists under the direction of the 4-H Program Leader. 

All six members of the 4th cohort of YDI completed the certificate. They received 60 hours of professional development. All six developed an educational program that can be integrated in their county program which follows the positive youth development theory. All six participants reported an increase in knowledge of positive youth development concepts. 

The next Cohort of YDI (C5) will begin in September 2024.