Although positive youth development (PYD) is increasingly influential in the field of youth programming, core knowledge and competencies for youth workers continue to be defined. Youth serving agencies throughout the United States face serious obstacles in the creation of a stable and well-trained workforce, despite the presence of many talented and resourceful individuals who work with youth in the community. One strategy for organizational and staff development is through PYD-oriented, community-based partnerships designed to enhance youth worker knowledge and competence. Two different partnerships are described in this report. The first brought together experts in youth work, health, and trauma, and focused on improving youth worker response to psychologic trauma commonly experienced by urban youth. This partnership used an iterative reflective practice approach to describe best practices in youth work. The second partnership strategically taught evaluation skills to youth program consumers, AmeriCorps service members, and adult youth workers to advance youth-adult partnerships. These exemplars demonstrate that partnerships can drive systems for improving competencies in youth workers and the capacities of youth services.

, and Nancy Claiborne r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r C ommunity-based partnerships (CBPs) focused on youth development (YD) have the potential to improve public health outcomes. These partnerships also present opportunities for the design and implementation of innovative, community-level change strategies, which ultimately may result in new capacities for positive YD. Evaluation-driven learning and improvement frameworks facilitate the achievement of these partnership-related benefits. Partnerships are complex because they embody multiple levels of intervention (eg, youth-serving programs, youth participation as partners or evaluators, network development for collaborative projects and resource sharing, YD-oriented organizational or community policy change). This inherent complexity transfers to evaluations of CBPs. This article provides resources for meeting evaluation-related challenges. It includes a framework for articulating relevant evaluation questions for YD-oriented CBPs, a summary of relevant types of evaluation studies, and practical solutions to common evaluation problems using targeted evaluation studies. Concrete examples of relevant, small-scale evaluation studies are provided throughout.Youth development (YD) programs have the potential to improve a variety of adolescent health behaviors. These behaviors correspond to important public health goals such as drug and alcohol use, cigarette smoking, violence, and high-risk sexual behavior (see, eg, Catalano and colleagues 1 ). This potential of YD programs is enhanced by community-based partnerships (CBPs) focused on positive YD. These partnerships typically consist of a variety of community stakeholders (partners), including social service providers, local government officials, public school representatives, law enforcement officials, representatives from faith-based organizations, community members, and young people performing important youth leadership roles.2 Reciprocally, CBPs' potential is maximized when they are guided by the principles, values, and practices associated with a positive YD perspective. 3In brief, positive YD and CBPs constitute a powerful match. Together they have the potential to improve public health outcomes, especially adolescent health outcomes (as other articles in this journal supplement indicate). At the same time, this match may result in new community capacities for healthy development.Clearly, this enormous potential needs to be tapped, and evaluation-driven learning and improvement strategies provide one key for doing so. New evaluation frameworks that respond to the challenges associated with the inherent complexity in CBPs focused on YD are needed.Notably, youth-focused CBPs represent complex interventions. They focus on positive outcomes for young people, including healthy and constructive behavioral habits, which lead to stable, productive lives as family members and adult ci...