Ready News: July 11, 2019

The 2019 Landscape: What Do New Governors and Legislation Mean for State Children’s Cabinets So Far?

Blog by Mary Ellen Wiggins, Director of Policy and Research, The Forum for Youth Investment

In January 2019, on the heels of gubernatorial elections, twenty new governors assumed office in states across the country, bringing with them new policies, priorities, and people. One critical and under-recognized area of impact? State-level children’s coordinating bodies-often known as children’s cabinets-which bring together state and sometimes private agencies whose work promotes the wellbeing of children and youth. Moreover, some state legislatures have recently taken action on children’s cabinets. Half a year into these new administrations, where do states stand?

Learn more about the progress of these coordinating bodies.

 

New Funding Opportunity to Host Community Convening on How Learning Happens

Are you working to advance young people’s social, emotional, and cognitive development? Are you poised to extend those efforts through intentional cross-sector collaboration? Is your organization trusted in the community to represent and honor its young people? If so, you are invited to apply for a grant of $30,000 to accelerate the whole child work across your community.

America’s Promise Alliance is seeking five community conveners to bring together young people and leaders from various sectors to inspire action around how learning happens. Each community convener will be awarded a $30,000 grant to plan and execute a cross-sector convening that occurs between October 2019 and April 2020.

America’s Promise will support convenings that meet three purposes:

  1. Share knowledge about how learning happens.
  2. Inspire action and connection across the community.
  3. Identify 2-3 opportunities on which the community is poised to act.

The deadline to submit your application is July 24, 2019.

Learn more.

 

David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality – Upcoming Training Opportunities

The Forum’s David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality partners with networks of youth programs to implement evidence-based quality improvement and accountability systems. To help build local capacity, the Weikart Center regularly offers trainings around the country that prepare participants to lead their quality improvement process.

If you’re a manager or site leader who wants to support your program sites through the quality improvement cycle or interested in building your capacity to offer professional development opportunities to your program staff, these trainings are for you.

Upcoming Capacity-Building Trainings

Youth Work Management
Ann Arbor, Michigan: September 23-24, 2019

Coaching for Continuous Improvement
Ann Arbor, Michigan: October 16-17, 2019

Learn more about these and other upcoming learning opportunities.

 

Exploring the Science of Learning and Development with Pamela Cantor, M.D.

Skills and talents exist in a potential state in all children and can be revealed and developed in the many environments in which children grow and learn – environments in which all children can become successful, no matter their individual starting points or what happens along the way.

The Forum’s President and CEO Karen Pittman recently sat down with Pamela Cantor, M.D., Founder and Senior Science Advisor of Turnaround for Children, to discuss how to expand the reach of 21st-century knowledge.

This session explored the national ecosystem that is being created to ensure this knowledge increasingly supports innovations in practice and policy across the settings in which children grow and learn. Organizations including Turnaround for Children, American Institutes for Research, Learning Policy Institute, Populace, and EducationCounsel, and now the Forum for Youth Investment, have joined forces in this effort.

Watch the recording and explore additional resources.

 

Creating Entrepreneurship Pathways for Opportunity Youth

Panel Discussion
Thursday, July 25, 2019
11:30 am – 2:00 pm EDT
Washington, D.C.

As opportunity youth – the 4.6 million young people ages 16-24 who are neither in school nor working – continue to struggle to connect to the economy, entrepreneurship programs may offer a chance to learn the skills and mindsets needed to thrive in today’s economy. How do we create entrepreneurship programs tailored to the strengths and the circumstances of opportunity youth?

Through the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund (YEF), three communities across the country have launched programs to explore entrepreneurship as a pathway to economic self-determination and wealth-building in low-income communities. This event, hosted by the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, will feature two panels, one with leaders from the programs and a second with young adult entrepreneurs from these communities. The conversations will explore emerging learnings from the YEF implementation, including strategies for adapting entrepreneurship curriculum to the unique strengths and needs of opportunity youth; how projects were designed with an equity lens; and strategies for engaging youth voice in the design and implementation of the collaboratives.

Learn more and register.