Ready News: April 15, 2022

Strong and Sustainable Children’s Cabinets – A Discussion Guide for State Leaders

Across the United States, state leaders have made admirable commitments to improving the lives of children, addressing a wide range of needs— including education and mentorship, healthcare and nutrition recreation and technology access, and more. However, the increasing specialization of government services has led to silos and disconnected services that can be inefficient or ineffective.

Children’s cabinets are formal structures for convening public officials with shared responsibility for supporting children’s well-being; they can highlight inequities across different communities and create awareness of, and accountability for, solving problems that might otherwise go unaddressed. By improving coordination, collaboration, and coherence across agencies, children’s cabinets can deliver more effective services and supports to children and families.

Strong and Sustainable Children’s Cabinets: A Discussion Guide, co-published with the Aspen Institute, is for state leaders who embrace the responsibility of improving the responsiveness and effectiveness of services to children and families. The guide includes:

  • How to address the unique issues related to designing children’s cabinets
  • Help for existing cabinets to function more coherently and strategically, in service of the needs of the state and its residents.

Read the guide.


How to Pay Young People: Considerations for Equity & Effectiveness

Compensating young people for their time and expertise is a best practice for communities looking to authentically engage young people in local decision-making processes – including through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), youth councils, or other youth advisory bodies. After all, who has more expertise about young people’s needs than young people themselves?

How to Pay Young People for Equity Effectiveness offers practical guidance and considerations to help organizations and agencies establish processes to equitably and safely compensate young people for their work in research and decision-making.

Learn more.


Data Symposium: Putting Data to Work for Young People

Every Hour Counts Virtual Symposium

Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 12:00 – 4:30 PM ET

Join Every Hour Counts on May 4 to strategize with peers about how to collect, analyze, and use data to advance racial equity and drive continuous improvement. Participants will Jumpstart progress as they:

  • Engage in carefully curated sessions that highlight effective strategies and offer solutions to common data challenges;
  • Build their capacity to capture, interpret, and share youth, program, and community outcomes;
  • Prioritize racial equity across measurement tools, strategies, and systems; and
  • Connect with creative minds and experts across the country.

This free Virtual Symposium will feature ten 75-minute sessions that tap into the expertise of community leaders who are committed to demonstrating the value and impact of afterschool and summer experiences for youth, families, and communities. Attendees will learn how to invest stakeholders in a common vision and set of measures, identify and address gaps in service, improve quality, boost provider capacity, center equity, and use data to advance missions.

Register today.


Unlocking the “How”: Designing Family Engagement Strategies That Lead to School Success

A new resource from Learning Heroes, Unlocking the “How”: Designing Family Engagement Strategies That Lead to School Success, offers schools and districts a set of concrete recommendations for designing family engagement strategies that impact student learning and well-being. It is based on six years of surveys with families and educators, well-established research on effective practice, and case studies from schools and districts across the country.

Read more.