Full Partner Update: August 19 2009

August seems to be a month for travel, whether it is for work or pleasure. A new study has come out showing that adult males who take vacations are, other things being equal, healthier than those who don't. Here's to all of you who are finding time for real vacations. August at the Forum is turning out to be a combination of travel for work and pleasure. Last week was the Indianapolis Summit for Student Success, followed by a day of meetings with Indy Leaders including the core team of the new P-20 Partnership being facilitated by Strive. We learned a lot about what's going on in Indy (answer: lots). Our messages were also well received. As always, people loved the insulated pipeline analogy and agreed that student success requires big picture goals, strategies and partnerships. More importantly, they cheered at the idea that all of these hinge on better data!! The Lily Endowment and the Central Indiana Community Foundation were particularly responsive. They met with us at breakfast and then again at dinner (with Ananda Roberts joining) to discuss the value of building an integrated data platform that allows leaders to ask and answer tough questions about youth outcomes (academics and beyond), youth participation (school and beyond), youth programs (availability and quality), and youth resources (public and private). They praised the development of the Partnership whose members are truly prepared to a) work together and b) meet them where they are (including working with existing data and coalitions) and help them assess where they want to go.

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Karen Pittman spoke about the core concepts of Ready by 21 during the keynote presentation of the Southeast Indiana Student Success Summit. The Summit offerred the community a chance to build partnerships, gain commitment and adopt an actionable plan for creating an environment full of opportunities for youth to thrive, learn, engage and contribute. Approximately 250 leaders, including many youth, attended the day long event. Caroline Brachman of the America's Promise Alliance spoke during the afternoon about the national effort to reduce America's high school dropout rates.

A reminder that Bob Bowen will be contacting each of the Technical Partners as he completes a summary chart on the array of supports the Partnership has to offer across the types of data and information we encourage leaders to use in making their decisions. When this functional overview is completed it will be a useful tool to be used along with the summary slide. Please remember that feedback on the summary slide was due back to Larry on the 14th. If you didn't respond and have some thoughts, please send them along by the end of this week. There continues to be progress on aligning our work. Recently, Strive and the Forum have been detailing the fit between their respective efforts. Forum staff participated in the recent Strive lead meeting in Richmond, August 13-14.

Karen Pittman, president, CEO and co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment, has been named one of the top 50 CEOs in nonprofits with power and influence. This 12th annual edition of The NonProfit Times list is the first time Pittman has been recognized for her leadership in the youth development field. Making selections to The 2009 NPT Power & Influence Top 50 is based on nominations from editorial staff of The NonProfit Times, its contributing editors, suggestions from former nominees and a few selected, "plugged-in" people. Ready by 21 Partners Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way of America; Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of America's Promise Alliance; and Irv Katz, president of the National Collaboration for Youth/National Human Service Assembly make a repeat visit to the list. To view the 2009 NPT Power & Influence Top 50, published on August 1, 2009, please visit http://nptimes.com/09aug/NPTtop5019.pdf.

The Forum for Youth Investment convened teams of state policymakers from Maine, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Florida in Washington, DC on August 10 & 11 to hear from leading experts in the fields of post secondary education as well as federal funding opportunities and policies that guide data sharing and integration. In preparation of the event, the Forum's Karen Pittman and Elyse Rosenblum of Corporate Voices for Working Families (CVWF) gave a webinar on the basic concepts of Ready by 21 and the position of youth in the evolving job market. State teams were lead by Children's Cabinet directors and staff with various stakeholders from the education pipeline, including the Commissioner of Education for Tennessee, Tim Webb, and Maine, Sue Gendron. Throughout the meeting, teams met in small groups to discuss action steps to advance their work in these areas.

During August, the Reclaiming Futures Every Day blog posted an article written by Forum President and Co-Founder Karen Pittman. The article focus is how the educational system can keep our youth from entering the juvenile justice system. Reclaiming Futures Every Day is a resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the Reclaiming Futures model. The blog's goals are to promote information-sharing between project sites implementing the model, and to share news, research, and information on juvenile justice reform and teen drug treatment with the public. Reclaiming Futures project receives funding support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To read the article please visit http://blog.reclaimingfutures.org/?q=juvenile-justice-system-education-pipeline-insulation.

Child Trends Senior Scholar Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D., has been selected to receive the 2009 William Foote Whyte Award from the Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Dr. Moore was recognized "for her career-long efforts in using sociological research to develop policy, evaluate programs, and further understanding of society. The fact that the beneficiaries of all these efforts are children makes it all the more laudable."

Back for a second appearance will be an full-page color ad that shares the Ready by 21 vision with readers of the October 2009 issue of the Atlantic. The ad is sponsored by Altria, parent company of Philip Morris USA, one of the supporters of the Ready by 21 Partnership. The October issue of the Atlantic will be on newsstands September 15.

Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy Releases Report Featuring Ready by 21 Work in New York State

'Back on Track: Re-Connecting New York's Disconnected Youth to Education and Employment' provides an in-depth portrait of disconnected youth at the state level, and makes the case that the needs of disconnected youth - and those at risk of disconnection - should be a vital priority in New York State. Existing programs that work and opportunities for new initiatives are also outlined in the report. The Ready by 21 Quality Counts Initiative is featured in the report. The report can be reviewed at http://www.scaany.org/documents/back_on_track_report_000.pdf.

A new project financed by the Lumina Foundation for Education is measuring the educational needs of states and regions by combining and comparing existing census data, such as degree completions, poverty rates, and population growth. Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, and Georgia are the states where the education system faces the greatest challenges in meeting the economic needs of a fast-growing population, according to data from the Educational Needs Index. The states with the least challenges in that area are North Dakota, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota, the project found. To view the project please go to http://www.educationalneedsindex.com/index.php.