The youth work curriculum, developed as a special degree program at the College of Public and Community Service of the University of Massachusetts at Boston as part of a demonstration grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to the Boston Teen Center Alliance is presented. The Youth Work Career Certificate (equivalent to a traditional "major"), designed to address the basic skills a direct service worker in a youth agency requires to be effective, including skills drawn from the knowledge base of a psychology curriculum with a developmental and clinical focus as well as skills in program planning, management and community organizing is described. The curriculum materials address the following 12 skills areas: (1) human development, (2) adolescent development, (3) juvenile law, (4) youth program planning, (5) street work, (6) group work, (7) assessment, (8) referral, (9) grant development, (10) staffing issues and problems, (11) fiscal management, and (12) community organizing. Evaluation results of the two-year-old program, showing a positive relationship between skills taught and usefulness on the job and improved skill levels and job effectiveness, are included. (Author)