New Materials

An Opportunity for Three Southeast Communities to Take a Big Picture Approach to Tracking Quality in OST Programs

Ready by 21 is a strategy that helps communities improve the odds that all youth will be ready for college, work and life. Ready by 21 meets leaders where they are, challenges them to think and work differently, and helps them progress further and faster to deliver results for youth.

Each issue of READY PICKS focuses on one or more of “the 4 Bs”: broader partnerships, bigger goals, better data and bolder strategies – the capacities leaders need to strengthen to do business differently, and offers our best picks of research, tools and examples selected from the work of Ready by 21 Partners, Ready by 21 places and others committed to big picture change.

Each issue of READY PICKS focuses on one or more of “the 4 Bs”: broader partnerships, bigger goals, better data and bolder strategies – the capacities leaders need to strengthen to do business differently, and offers our best picks of research, tools and examples selected from the work of Ready by 21 Partners, Ready by 21 places and others committed to big picture change.

This commentary takes readers inside the world of the Beacons, to understand their approach to supervision. In it, we ask and answer the questions: What does good supervision of youth work professionals look like? How can we strengthen supervision in ways that improve practice and reduce turnover?

This session examined tools that can assist leaders answer questions that need to be asked. Larry Pasti, Director of Field Services for the Forum for Youth Investment, presented on data tools and methodologies to ask and respond to more complex questions about who and where children are; how well they are doing; what they are participating in; and how these critical supports are, in turn, being

This session explored a range of tools from Ready by 21 partners that can help answer key questions. Participants learned to ask and answer more complex questions about who and where children are; how well they are doing; what they are participating in; and how these critical supports are, in turn, being viewed and supported.

This webinar series will introduce participants to the core and advanced components of Ready by 21®. This challenge calls on states and communities to change the odds for youth by changing the way they do business. This requires broadening definitions of what it means for youth to be ready, for schools and communities to be supportive and for all leaders to be engaged.

Ready by 21 isn't a program or a campaign or even an initiative.

We've got exciting news this month! We're proud to announce our Ready by 21 Video and Brochure – these are great resources that lay out in a simple way the Ready by 21 Challenge, Approach and Partnership. In the video, hear the story of leaders in Richmond using Ready by 21 to improve their community.

Effective leadership for changing the odds for children and youth requires motivating a number of distinct groups to act. It is essential for leaders to develop an aligned and focused advocacy and communications strategy that articulates and builds demand for changing the odds for children and youth.

On any given day, scores of young people with limited individual and social capital are simultaneously struggling to exit some systems and enter others: foster care, residential treatment centers, higher education, mental health programs, gainful employment.

This commentary takes readers on a cross-country tour of after-school innovation – from northern and southern California to Chicago, New York and New Hampshire. In On the Ground we describe two very different school-based models in California.

Program quality assessment and improvement continue to be central themes in the after-school and youth development fields. In March 2007 we released the first edition of this report comparing the purpose, history, structure, methodology, content and technical properties of different program observation tools.

As the year comes to a end, several projects at the Forum are reaching major milestones. The Ready by 21 Quality Counts sites celebrated the end of the first year and planned ahead to the second and final year of the initiative.

Ready by 21 isn’t a program or a campaign or even an initiative. It is a challenge to all who care about children and youth to think differently – to learn a different way to approach all of the tasks associated with trying to manage, make or measure change at any level from the classroom to the capitol – so that they can act differently.

This commentary highlights the work of the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems, a collaborative of mature, city and county-wide nonprofit OST intermediaries, to develop and adopt common youth-, program- and system-level measures that are easy and cost-effective for local systems to implement.

Across the country, too few youth leave high school ready for success. Community statistics and conditions vary, but there is no community across the country that is doing well enough by its children and youth. There is a need to do more.

The America’s Promise Alliance is supporting 50 state and at least 50 city Dropout Prevention Summits to be held by 2010. The purposes of the Dropout Prevention Summits are many, but the primary intention is to increase public awareness of the dropout and college-readiness crisis.

On May 15, Karen Pittman moderated a panel – Preparing Youth for Success in a Global Economy – at the Community Leaders Conference hosted by United Way of America in Baltimore. Karen spoke about the Ready by 21 framework data on youth readiness that can be applied to work supporting youth.

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On May 8, Karen Pittman traveled to Mason City, Iowa where she delivered the keynote at the first annual Adolescent Youth Workers Summit that kicked off Mason City's participation in the Ready by 21 Quality Counts Initiative. There, Karen spoke to over 100 youth work practitioners and community leaders about the importance of improving the quality and reach of youth programs.

Below are featured clips from the press conference announcing the national launch of the Ready by 21 Challenge, aimed at helping state and local leaders change the odds for youth by changing the way they do business.

Ready by 21 isn't a program or a campaign or even an initiative. It is a challenge to all who care about children and youth to learn a different approach to the tasks associated with trying to manage, make or measure change at any level from the classroom to the capitol.

The six partners who in 2007 made formal commitments to work with the Forum to advance the Ready by 21 Challenge represent the education, government, nonprofit, business and community philanthropy sectors. Each was chosen because they had pledged to do business differently and sought out the Forum to help in some way.

Washington DC -- On February 27th, Former Congressman Dick Gephardt, Former Governor Tom Ridge and United Way of America President Brian Gallagher will join Forum for Youth Investment co-founders Karen Pittman and Merita Irby to kick-off the national phase of the Forum’s Ready by 21™ Challenge.   The Ready by 21™ Challenge calls on states and c

In Maryland, there are many agencies, organizations, task forces and coalitions focused on various pieces of the puzzle needed to ensure that all youth are ready for adulthood. While aiming for similar ultimate goals, these groups are often working in parallel and occasionally at cross purposes due to funding streams and grant restrictions.

Iowa is working through the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development and Iowa’s Promise to ensure that all Iowa youth have the opportunity to be successful…in school, in a career, and in life. Iowa’s vision is for All Iowa Youth to be Safe, Healthy, Successful and Prepared for Adulthood.

This two-pager summarizes the core assumptions that philanthropists, planners and policy makers consciously or unconsciously take into account when making decisions about where to focus their efforts to bring about change.

Brochure: Offering the highlights of what a CYF resource map can do, and why a state or community might benefit from one, the brochure can help you make the case and spread the word about your efforts.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Press Contact:            
Thaddeus Ferber                        
202-207-3333
thaddeus@ForumFYI.org

Part of the Ready by 21® Change Makers in Action Series, this case study describes the work done by the Georgetown Divide Ready by 21 Coalition.

An introduction to the Ready by 21 Change Makers In Action Series.

Read about the work the Forum and its partners have done in the first year since launching the Ready by 21 Challenge.

Much has been written lately that asks the question -- are young people across this country ready for college? The Forum for Youth Investment, Connect for Kids, Voices for America's Children and many state Kids Count organizations have developed this series for state advocates to share the vision, messages and state policies being proposed to improve the college readiness of youth.

Reflecting on her life as a teen growing up in the low-income neighborhoods of Washington, DC, Karen Pittman spells out why she is determined to have the Forum meet its goal of challenging national partners and state and local change makers to ensure that every young person is Ready by 21®.