Ready by 21 Key Ideas

Every community and state has dedicated leaders who have taken on the critical task of bringing diverse people and disparate efforts together in order to transform their community or state into a wonderful place to grow up.

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 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

Please find below notes from America's Youth Councils Network call on December 14, 2009.  Also below is the agenda, participant list, and Capitol Hill 1-pager from the 2nd Annual Convening held in Washington, DC on October 25 & 26, 2009. 

As the youth development and out-of-school time fields expand and mature, practitioners, policy makers and researchers are increasingly rallying around the importance of assessing and improving program quality. A range of tools is now available to support these efforts.

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

By Karen Pittman, December 2008

The core belief here at the Forum for Youth Investment – that all young people should be Ready by 21 – ready for college, work and life – often provokes public criticism.  The exchanges typically go like this:

“Not every young person needs to go to college,” calls out one person from an audience. True, I say, but all should be ready to.