Ready News: October 31, 2019

Housing Choice Vouchers: Using Research to Spur New Approaches and Greater Equity

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.

A new blog by the Forum’s Alex Sileo and Mary Ellen Wiggins examines 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.

Read the blog.

Last Call: Share Your Story at the 9th Annual Ready by 21 National Meeting

The Forum for Youth Investment is now accepting workshop proposals for the Ready by 21 National Meeting being held in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 15-17, 2020. We encourage you to submit your ideas! The deadline for submission is tomorrow, November 1 at 5:00 pm EDT.

As you’ll see in the Request for Proposals, the workshops are designed to help participants dig deeper into the effective partnerships, practices and policies that states and communities are implementing to improve outcomes for young people. Click here for guidance into the four meeting themes:

  • Ensuring Readiness for college, work, and life, by building competencies, abilities, and mindsets.
  • Promoting Equity for all young people, especially closing gaps for populations often facing great challenges (e.g., boys & young men of color, opportunity youth, youth in foster care, pregnant & parenting youth) and creating equitable learning environments for all.
  • Improving Program and Practice Quality and effectiveness in ways that spark management & staff engagement and support better outcomes for young people.
  • Increasing Shared Commitment to changing the odds for young people through common goals, strategies and measures within and across systems & sectors.

For more information and to review the 2019 National Meeting agenda for ideas, please visit the Ready by 21 National Meeting website.

Karen Pittman Speaks with Tulsa Public Radio on What Youth Need to Thrive

Last week, the Forum’s President and CEO joined Opportunity Project – a Tulsa nonprofit that acts as a “citywide intermediary for expanded learning [and for] connecting youth to the world of opportunity” – to celebrate the 20th anniversary of National Lights On Afterschool Day. While in Tulsa, Karen sat down with Tulsa Public Radio to discuss the vital importance of learning beyond the classroom.

Listen to the episode.

New Podcast Series Highlights Leading Voices in American Education, Health, and Child Development

Turnaround for Children just launched a new podcast, The 180, that will feature leading voices in American education, health, and child development. The 180 will explore how to transform 21st century education – how to turn it around – using 21st century science. The science explaining how children learn and develop is incredibly optimistic about what is possible for each and every child. If applied, it could unleash talent and potential in classrooms everywhere.

Currently, episodes with Pamela Cantor, Todd Rose, and Linda Darling-Hammond are available. Soon, sessions featuring Jim Shelton, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, and the Forum’s Karen Pittman will be posted.

View the series.

National Afterschool Workforce Survey

Currently, there is limited information and demographic data about the afterschool workforce. The National AfterSchool Association wants to better understand the afterschool workforce to support professional growth, improve representation for all in advocacy efforts, and help to advance equity within the field.

Capturing stories from the breadth of professionals that make afterschool work will uncover trends and opportunities to inform new strategies, identify potential career pathways, and inform advocacy for the profession. This survey can be completed by anyone who works with or on behalf of youth in out-of-school time.

This National Afterschool Workforce Survey is a research endeavor to deliver a robust profile of the afterschool workforce, its experiences, and perspectives.

Complete the National Afterschool Workforce Survey (open until 11/3).