Webs of Support Nigeria

Good things are happening!

What we do!

Our Full-Color Web of Support Program offers a new lens for youth to see and understand themselves and the world around them.

First formulated, tested, and established in Alaska, the USA, in 1997, the Full-Color Web of Support framework, metrics, and measures teach young people and their Anchoring adults methods to avoid risky behaviors AND increase their resiliency when working toward their dreams and goals.

In 2013, the Government of Akwa Ibom State sponsored the cadre of state officials to travel to Chicago, the USA, to get training in the Web of Support program. (The Child Development Consulting Firm, De-Philipino Ventures Consulting, in Lagos, Nigeria, led by Paul Philip Iwok, coordinated the trip. Paul is the author of the youth development book, the "Journey of a Houseboy to Significance," which has been adopted by the Akwa Ibom State Ethical and Attitudinal Re-orientation (EARCOM) as the state advocacy campaign tool against the Houseboy Syndrome social stigma.)

Full-Color Web of Support lessons, activities, and coaching encourage the children and youth to view their lives differently. This new lens enables them to see the colorful light within and the colorful light that surrounds them. The program was officially inaugurated in Nigeria in 2019 by Kathrine Thompson-Stone, an American Integrative Youth Development Full Color Web of Support Ambassador's three-week training trip to Nigeria. Paul Philip Iwok and his wife Aniekan were commissioned to lead Nigerian "Youth Developmental Ecologists" to teach the Web of Support program metrics and measures during this trip.

Who we are!

The Integrative Child/Youth Development (IYD) web of support program framework and lessons teaches children about the essential components to avoiding risk behaviors, filtering out the harm and pain in their circumstances, and providing a launch path for their future dreams and aspirations. Our work teaches the Child Development Spectrum through a Full-Color Web of Support story. And makes the work meaningful, memorable, and measurable for young people, their Anchoring adults, and the programs that serve them. Our work shows the inter-relationships between the best child/youth development research and studies in the world today that support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What is Integrative Youth Development (IYD)?

IYD is an academic discipline with corresponding practices that combines the best of psychological, child development, family systems, and educational methods in an easily understood and useable framework for optimal youth development.

Integrative youth development reaffirms the importance of the relationship between adults and youth, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and uses all appropriate approaches, professionals, and disciplines to achieve optimal well-being, resilience, and student achievement.

Integrative youth development practitioners will see the child/youth through a developmentally holistic lens and develop supportive prevention/intervention/treatment plans that draw from the best youth development research and theories. Practitioners prefer options that have been investigated and researched through the scientific method, offering interventions based upon the most accurate and updated information.

IYD's true value is how it takes account of the whole child/youth, including all aspects of lifestyle, family, community, and culture. It makes use of all appropriate people and their practices and programs.