The end of summer is the best time to start planning for the next. In our most recent webinar, Reflecting on Summer, Planning for Next Year: Best Practices from Wallace-Commissioned Summer Learning Research, researchers from the NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (NYU Metro Center) shared key learnings and insights from studying how 44 school districts plan for summer.  

More than two decades ago, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development (colloquially known as the Blue Book) laid the research foundation for much of the training, technical assistance, and quality measurement that youth programs rely on today. In 2025, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released its long-awaited update: The Future of Youth Development: Building Systems and Strengthening Programs, a consensus study commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, that reviews what we now know about out-of-school time programs serving young people. 

For over 25 years, the Forum for Youth Investment has been a leading advocate for out-of-school (OST) programming, developing and optimizing how OST providers cultivate communities of care and transformation. These settings have been found to increase the likelihood a young person will transition smoothly into college and career, yet many youth are still excluded from these experiences each year, especially when the school year ends.

The Forum for Youth Investment welcomes Ali Lauge as our inaugural Chief Growth Officer and Meredith Hills as our Senior Manager, Federal Policy,

One of the bravest things I’ve done is speak my truth in front of a State Representative.

Youth development is essential infrastructure, not an add-on, and sustaining it requires real investment in the systems, intermediaries, and workforce that support young people every day.