There’s a growing consensus in the youth-serving field of the vital importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) for young people. Research over many years suggests that preparing children to be caring, ethical, contributing adults requires supporting them to develop social and emotional skills. These skills include focusing and deploying attention, understanding and managing emotions, empathizing with and respecting others, navigating social conflicts effectively, and standing up for principles of justice and fairness.

Karen Pittman Discussed Quality, Readiness, and Equity: Why a Commitment to All Three is Important to OST.

The City of Seattle and King County are now testing a new housing intervention called the Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) project. CMTO tests a more personalized response to the proven idea that place matters for children and that moving young people to neighborhoods of higher opportunity can lead to positive economic, health and education outcomes. This blog will examine the research that informed this project, the promising results that Seattle and King County have demonstrated so far, and how this body of research has equity implications for both program design and research.

Karen sat down with Tulsa Public Radio to discuss the vital importance of learning beyond the classroom.

Trevor Davies Will Work in Michigan and Nationally to Increase Access to Afterschool Programs.

In September, the Forum's President & CEO Karen Pittman spoke with Camille Farrington, one of the chief architects of the Foundations for Young Adult Success framework, to explore how the framework remains critical to our efforts to put children and youth at the center and address equity.

In this Issue: Whole Child/Whole Community Approach | Call for NAA20 Presenters | Future of Education Data | Summertime Experiences

In this Issue: Ready by 21 National Meeting | Young Adult Success | Equity

In this Issue: Ready by 21 National Meeting | Funding | Afterschool | Whole Child

In 2019, over 650 leaders convened April 23-25 in Seattle, Washington for the 8th annual Ready by 21 National Meeting. The thought-provoking plenary session and keynote videos are now available for viewing.  

More than a year has passed since the federal government announced its goal of developing a comprehensive strategy for using and managing data to deliver on mission, serve customers, and steward resources while respecting privacy and confidentiality. Now the government has released a draft year-one action plan and is seeking public input on its scope and content. This blog includes our organization's submitted comments on the Federal Data Strategy.