The Konopka Institute is named after Gisela Konopka, D.S.W., recognized for her landmark work with adolescents. Her principles of working with youth and communities, articulated in a 1973 position paper, form the foundation upon which this Institute is built and continue to be consonant with the state and national agenda for promoting the health and well being of young people.
Konopka Institute's mission is to promote the adoption and adaptation of strategies, policies and systems that show the greatest promise of supporting healthy youth development. The overarching goal of the Konopka Institute is to improve the health and well being of all young people in Minnesota through a strategy that frames a "healthy youth development" approach to youth health-related issues, a strategy that incorporates problem prevention, developmental support, community-based change, and public policy.
Dr. Konopka, whose career spans more than 60 years, is a pioneer in the study of adolescent female development, culminating in two books: "Portrait of a Young Girl" and "The Adolescent Girl in Conflict." She is the author of at least one dozen books and over 300 journal articles.
Dr. Konopka has been the moving force behind numerous innovative methods in practice and research in social work and youth services. She has been a leader in making scholarly knowledge about youth available to those who need it most–the practitioners. It has been her unerring devotion to making human services humane that has characterized her outstanding career.
In the early 1970s Dr. Konopka was asked by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to write a paper articulating the fundamental requirements for healthy adolescent development. They remain relevant today and form the foundation from which the Konopka Institute operates.
Youth need to:
- Participate as citizens, as members of a household, as workers, as responsible members of society;
- Gain experience in decision making;
- Interact with peers, and acquire a sense of belonging;
- Reflect on self, in relation to others and discover self by looking outward as well as inward;
- Discuss conflicting values and formulate one's own value system;
- Experiment with one's own identity, with relationships to other people, with ideas; try out various roles without having to commit oneself irrevocably;
- Develop a feeling of accountability in the context of a relationship among equals;
- Cultivate a capacity to enjoy life.
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