In April, the Forum for Youth Investment and the Urban Institute brought together policymakers and practitioners from across levels of government and the non-profit sector to discuss Using Evidence for Improvement in the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act. The event featured a panel of speakers from federal, state and local agencies to share how they have used evidence to improve programs, with closing remarks from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on what agencies should consider as they begin to implement the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act).

The FY 2020 AP chapter “Building and Using Evidence to Improve Government Effectiveness” can help policymakers, researchers, and service providers understand the federal government approach and priorities for using evidence in policymaking. It focuses on four key areas: (1) evidence-building strategies to learn and improve, (2) evaluation as a tool to learn and improve, (3) harnessing data for learning and improvement, and (4) promoting transparency and accountability in federal evidence-building. These four areas demonstrate how the federal government is moving forward on a number of key ideas found in the Forum’s recent work.

Helping to reconnect youth back to education and employment and get them on a path to a successful transition to adulthood that includes economic self-sufficiency, skills that support independent living and improved health, mental health and well-being can be challenging. Youth development stakeholders and beneficiaries (i.e., the youth themselves) describe significant challenges that hinder meaningful improvements in education, employment, health and well-being outcomes.

There is no question that I am a fan of out-of-school time (OST) systems — data-driven, coordinated community-level efforts to improve access to quality before and after school and summer learning experiences. Just check my track record to know I have helped incubate dozens of them across the country, both as part of The Wallace Foundation team as well as a Big Picture Approach consultant with the Forum for Youth Investment.

In this Issue: Youth Development, Ready by 21 National Meeting, Opportunity Index, Social and Emotional Learning, Collective Impact Learning Lab

The Forum's Opportunity Nation, along with its research partner, Child Trends, recently released a pilot Metro-Level Opportunity Index, a modified version of the annual Opportunity Index focused on the nation's metro areas.

How can schools and youth development organizations better align to increase their communities' understanding of the importance of focusing on the whole learner? Broaden access to high-quality learning opportunities that support comprehensive development?   Strengthen adult social and emotional learning practice?

Being disconnected, out of school and unemployed as a young person is potentially traumatic. These experiences can have lasting impacts on income, employability, health and well-being. The effects grow the longer a young person is disconnected. And the effects linger over time.

We have 40 years of evidence that shows us how learning happens but what’s next? How can students benefit from this knowledge? How can we continuously improve quality in learning settings to support social, emotional and academic development? In this brief video, the Forum for Youth Investment's CEO and co-founder Karen Pittman delves into these topics.

In this Issue: Introducing the Metro-Level Opportunity Index, Social Mobility in Rural America, Weikart Trainings, Culture of Health Leaders

Much of the research on the fading "American Dream"-the expectation that children will grow up to earn more than their parents-has focused on the country's urban areas. However, as the nation's cultural, economic, and political divides have deepened, there has been accelerating interest in understanding how the 60 million people who live in rural America are confronting the challenges that come with climbing the income ladder.