Webs of Supportive Relationships: A Positive Youth Development Approach to Career and Workforce Development with Risk-Immersed Youth

As major social, political, and economic trends reshape the nature of work and careers worldwide, communities are confronted with the challenge of preparing youth to navigate an increasingly complex occupational landscape. For risk-immersed youth, significant barriers across developmental contexts may disrupt progress along productive career pathways. Relationships represent a fundamental vehicle through which to deliver key social supports to empower youth to manage adversity, express resilience, and leverage career and workforce development (CWD) opportunities. This chapter proposes a Webs of Support framework as an example of a strengths-based, relationship-focused, positive youth development (PYD) framework within which CWD approaches can be situated to provide the comprehensive developmental resources necessary to help youth thrive. The authors provide recommendations to assist practitioners, scholars, and policymakers in advancing this relationships-focused PYD approach to facilitate improved CWD outcomes for risk-immersed youth across diverse contexts.