Our Mission

We advance equitable youth opportunities and outcomes through quality capacity building and policy action across systems and sectors.

Our Vision

All young people reach their fullest potential – in education, work, and life.

Our Strategy

Our work is guided by our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan – Stronger Systems, Stronger Youth – and anchored in our vision that all young people reach their fullest potential – in education, work, and life. By focusing on quality capacity building and policy action across systems and sectors, the Forum connects leaders in youth development to the resources and services they need to create equitable opportunities and outcomes for all young people.

Our core priorities throughout the next five years will be focused in three broad areas:

  1.  Improving program quality in youth development systems​, leveraging continuous quality improvement tools, resources, and frameworks along with research and evaluation.
  2. Building practitioner and system leader capacity, providing consultation, training, and technical assistance and co-designing innovative solutions that support positive youth development.
  3. Convening the youth development ecosystem to shape policy, identifying gaps and building relationships to advance a youth policy agenda.

 

Our Values

Our Interdependent Values – 4 Cs of Culture

  • Courage: we challenge the status quo through a culture of candor, risk-taking, and productive conflict.
  • Collective Accountability: we are responsible for our actions, own our work, and achieve our mission through results.
  • Collaboration: we affirm identity; value individual contributions, experience, and expertise; and celebrate teamwork.
  • Curiosity: we ask good questions, identify root causes, adapt, continuously learn, and champion creativity.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Forum affirms the worth, dignity, and potential of every young person, staff member, individual client, and partner with whom we work/engage. We center and amplify their diverse voices in our work. We recognize that engaging with and listening to our stakeholders is key to modeling shared power and equitable partnerships. The Forum is deeply and firmly committed to the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our organization. We continuously interrogate the role we play in advancing equity.


The Forum is committed to thought leadership – and to bring academic, field and action research into play where policy and practice decisions are made. We do more than synthesize information. We challenge leaders to:

  • improve youth readiness;
  • increase family, school and community supports; and
  • increase shared accountability for progress.

The Forum is equally committed to action. Each year, we expand our capacity to help leaders who share our passion for change to move ideas to impact. We create trainings, tools, learning communities, technical assistance and evaluation approaches that respond to their requests and connect them with their peers.

Our Vision

All young people reach their fullest potential - in education, work, and life.

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