Founding Members

Established as a private non-profit organization in 2008, ProYouthWork America (PYWA) achieves it mission in partnership with public and private youth serving organizations, educational institutions, workforce development experts, and public policy groups. Each of our founders brings two decades or more of experience providing training and technical assistance services to youth service agencies nationwide.

Prior to our formal incorporation, the PYWA founders group had been gathering voluntarily for decades to share resources and coordinate the delivery of our products and services to the field. But despite these efforts, we became increasingly frustrated by the lack of systemic, national solutions to the chronic and ever-worsening crisis in the youth services workforce. Determined to do more, and something that would make a 'real' difference, ProYouthWork America was conceived with the mandate to transform the face of the youth services workforce permanently.

PYWA’s organizational and individual member founders are located across country and have direct linkages to more than 1,000 youth service providers across North America.

Fastenau and Associates, consulting partner to ProYouthWork America, was founded in 2008 by Nancy Fastenau, the former Executive Director of the Western States Youth Services Network for 23 years. Nancy Fastenau brings 30 years of experience in non-profit capacity building with diverse youth organizations, mentoring programs, emergency and crisis services and intergenerational programs. She is a nationally trained facilitator in the Institute for Cultural Affairs, Technologies of Participation, Group Facilitation Methods and is an active trainer for these methods. Her specialty is to help non-profits work with and see youth as resources in improving their communities, and she specializes in designing programs that feature peer learning – where youth service workers learn from each other — as a way to expand skills and validate the expertise of experienced workers. In addition to promoting the message that peers are often the best teachers, Ms. Fastenau also focuses on bringing young people into the workforce.

Mountain Plains Network for Youth (MPNY), originally founded as a training and technical assistance network for youth service providers, has grown over the years to provide assistance and resources to a wide range of nonprofits and private and public agencies. MPNY offers a variety of organizational development services, including youth development and best practices training, facilitation, and strategic planning. MPNY worked collaboratively with programs in the state of Wyoming in founding and developing the Wyoming Association of Child and Youth Care Professionals to promote workforce development, certification, and on-going training. Additionally, MPNY has worked with organizations throughout the country in grant writing, funding development and business planning.

The Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth & Family Services (MANY) is a network designed to strengthen and coordinate resources and services for youth and families in high-risk situations. MANY is committed to bringing together organizations and individuals who are interested in the development of innovative alternatives for youth and families, and in exploring new ways to provide high quality services. Together with an active membership, MANY staff have designed a training and technical assistance program that has become a national model. MANY partners with over 500 practicing professionals, highly experienced staff, and a wealth of resources to provide our members, friends, and partners a variety of capacity building options which provide a depth of knowledge that is difficult for organizations to achieve on their own.

Youth and Family Services Network (YFSN) provides training, technical assistance, and advocacy support to organizations serving youth and families. Founded in 1977, YFSN (formerly SENetwork) is a private, not-for-profit membership organization with over 80 member agencies. YFSN operates the Virtual Campus, providing on-demand training resources and a forum for the exchange of ideas on how to respond to the ever-changing needs of today’s youth and families. YFSN services enable organizations to maximize their professional development resources, thereby supporting their essential workforce.

New England Network for Child, Youth & Family Services (NEN) works in partnership with organizations and communities throughout New England and nationally to advance promising practices with children, youth and families. By linking practical research and professional development, NEN translates new thinking into effective programming, strengthens social services and influences policy. NEN delivers several innovative workforce development initiatives, including ImProve Outcomes^sm, an educational approach to developing and tracking clients outcomes, and is certified to train facilitators in ICA's Art of Facilitation, AED's Advancing Youth Development, and Wyman's evidenced-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention curriculum. NEN has produced two powerful youth-driven research methodologies for the field: Zoom-In, a community needs assessment process that combines surveys and photovoice; and Mapsite, a GPS-enabled website designed by and for youth to uncover and exploit local community resources. Other training, consultant and information regularly produced by NEN and described on our website.

Kristen Truffa, consulting partner to ProYouthWork America, has worked in the field of youth services for over 20 years. Kristen worked at a community-based youth service organization for 10 years, providing direct services through administration, and has spent the last 11 years providing training, technical assistance, and capacity-building support services to youth and family service organizations statewide, regionally, and nationally. Presently Kristen works for Goodwill Industries International and supports efforts to increase the capacity of Goodwills to provide high-quality services in the communities in which they operate. She has also been involved in national public policy for the past eight years and presently is Vice Chair of the National Council on Youth Policy (NCYP) for the National Network for Youth. The NCYP provides leadership for developing strategies and policy in regards to youth-related issues on behalf of over 300 youth service agencies, and the youth and families they serve. Throughout her career, Kristen has advocated for and incorporated a youth development and asset-based approach in all aspects of the design, delivery, and evaluation of services with youth and families.