Ready News: September 20, 2018

In This Issue: Business Engagement, SEL, Bridge Conference, Equity

Michelle Massie Joins the Forum for Youth Investment as Director of Opportunity Nation and Strategic Initiatives

 

We are delighted to announce that Michelle K. Massie will join the Forum family this week as Director of Opportunity Nation and Strategic Initiatives. In this new role, Massie will lead the Forum’s efforts to better utilize data about economic mobility and opportunity in America to secure bipartisan support for policies that improve racial, social, and economic equity. She will be responsible for advancing the Forum’s Opportunity Nation initiatives, including the signature annual Opportunity Index, along with other related activities.

Massie comes from A+ Schools, an education advocacy organization based in Pittsburgh, where she managed the organization’s marketing and communications program.

“After successfully transitioning Opportunity Nation to the Forum, our most important decision was finding the right person to lead its activities. Michelle’s experience using data to drive policy changes to ensure everyone has opportunities to succeed made her an obvious choice for this position. We look forward to her joining the team” said Thaddeus Ferber, executive vice president of the Forum.

Read more about the work of Opportunity Nation.

 

Community in Education: Ideas to Bring Businesses, Schools and Communities Together

 

Schools and businesses have common and often compatible goals to better prepare their students for higher education, careers, and life. The Learning First Alliance and business partners from leading industries discuss new ways to reach their mutual goals in a new report, “Community in Education: Bringing Businesses and Schools Together.” It encourages schools to partner with local businesses, from large, multi-national corporations to small, family-owned storefronts, to give their students more meaningful, real-life educational experiences.

Review the report.

 

SEL and Afterschool: What is the Connection? Is there Evidence? A Thought Leader Conversation with Nancy Deutsch

 

Free Conference Call and Discussion

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

1:00-2:00 PM EDT

 

When asked, practitioners, policy makers and parents will quickly affirm that out-of-school time programs provide young people of all ages with opportunities to build and use their social and emotional skills.

Why is it then, that there is such a paucity of research on why, how, and how much these programs contribute to skill development? What kinds of policy changes could help OST programs promote SEL more effectively? Has the press for these programs to demonstrate impact on academic outcomes helped or hurt the cause?

Join Karen Pittman and Nancy Deutsch with the University of Virginia’s Youth-Nex as they discuss these critical questions.

Register now!

 

2018 Bridge Conference: Elevate Youth Voice

 

October 29-30, 2018

Seattle, Washington

 

This year’s 2018 Bridge Conference, hosted annually by School’s Out Washington, will take place October 29-30, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport in Renton. This year’s theme, Elevate Youth Voice, will explore how we can authentically embed practices and strengthen community, state, and national systems that drive equity and support young people in affecting change.

The full 2018 Bridge Conference workshop schedule is now live and available for you to browse the selection of sessions on cutting-edge topics and practices to support your work with, and for, young people.

Register for the conference here.

 

Practical Ideas for Improving Equity and Inclusion at Nonprofits

 

The journey toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has no fixed endpoint, but a recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article suggests a few helpful places to start. Emily Teitsworth, a nonprofit executive director, explores how to intentionally incorporate DEI strategies into her work. Teitsworth states that “Acknowledging intersectionality-the reality that we live within a system of overlapping and interdependent privileges and disadvantages-is a first step toward truly addressing DEI. But how can we make acknowledging intersectionality a practice, and not just a conversation? We can start by making relatively simple changes that center our work at the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation, ableism, and implicit bias.”

Read more.