Changing the Odds for Youth : A Call for Organizational and Community Leadership

1. Changing the Odds for Youth: A Call for Organizational and Community Leadership Presented by Karen Pittman, Executive Director, The Forum for Youth Investment

2. American Dream: All Youth Ready; Every Family and Community Supportive; Each Makes a Difference American Reality: Only 4 in 10 ready, only 1 in 3 supported; too few making a difference. Why?

3. Fragmented Efforts Outcomes Ages Settings Supports Stakeholders Strategies

4. The Ready by 21 Challenge:To Change the Odds for Children and Youth by Changing the Way we Do Business. Outcomes Settings Ages Supports Stakeholders Strategies

5. We Advocate for the Use of a Big Picture Approach • Take Aim • Take Stock • Take Action • Make Progress

6. We Provide Basic “Conceptual” Tools Such as those in the Workbook • About Young People • How “Ready” are your Young People? • Who’s Not Ready? • What’s Behind the Numbers? • About Communities • How Supportive is Your Community? • How Many Promises Have Been Met? • How Well do Systems and Settings Provide Needed Supports? • About Leaders and Change • Does your Community Have the Change Horsepower it Needs?

7. We Provide Training and TA for those needing “power” tools • Program Landscape Mapping • Program Quality Assessment • Workforce Status Surveying • Program Quality Improvement Planning • Workforce Development Asset Maps • Training curricula and Turnover reduction planning • Public/Private “Demand” development • Resource Assessment • Community and Cross-System Strategic Planning • “Change maker/change structure” coaching

8. Wanted: Fully Prepared Youth

9. The Need: Well-Prepared Youth “The continued ability of states to compete in the global economy hinges on how well they enable their younger citizens to attain the competencies and social attributes necessary to ultimately fuel economic growth and contribute to the well-being of their families and communities.” — National Governors Association’s Center for Best PracticesOctober 2003

10. To Deliver 21st Century Skills & Content: The Common Core of Ensuring All Youth are Ready Ready for College Academic Outcomes 21st Century Skills & Content Information & Media Literacy Communication Critical & Systems Thinking Problem Solving Creativity, Intellectual Curiosity Interpersonal Skills Self-Direction Accountability and Adaptability Social Responsibility Financial Literacy Global Awareness Civic Literacy Specific Vocational Knowledge & Skills Subject Matter Knowledge Ready for Work Youth Employment Outcomes Community partners are calling for and contributing to the development of broader skills and knowledge. Cultural, Physical & Behavioral Health Knowledge & Skills Ready for Life Youth Development Outcomes

11. Too Few Young People Are Ready

12. New Employer Survey Finds Skills in Short Supply On page after page, the answer to the report title – Are They Really Ready to Work? – was a disturbing “NO.” Employers ranked 20 skill areas in order of importance. The top skills fell into five categories: • professionalism/work ethic, • teamwork/collaboration, • oral communications, • ethics/social responsibility • reading comprehension.

13. Employer survey How critical are these skills? • 7 in 10 employers saw these skills as critical for entry-level high school graduates, • 8 in 10 as critical for two-year college graduates, • more than 9 in 10 as critical for four-year graduates. How prevalent? • Employers reported that 4 in 10 high school graduates were deficient, • Only 1 in 4 of four-year college graduates were highly qualified.

14. We Know What It Takes to Support Development The National Research Council reports that teens need: • Physical and psychological safety • Appropriate structure • Supportive relationships • Opportunities to belong • Positive social norms • Support for efficacy and mattering • Opportunities for skill-building • Integrationof family, school and community efforts

15. Do these Supports Really make a Difference? Even in Adolescence? ABSOLUTELY Gambone and colleagues show that youth with supportive relationships as they enter high school are 5 times more likely to leave high school “ready” than those with weak relationships. SOURCE: Finding Out What Matters for Youth: Testing Key Links in a Community Action Framework for Youth Development 2.6

16. Do these Supports Make a Difference in Adulthood? … and those seniors who were “ready” at the end of high school were more than 4 times as likely to be doing well as young adults. SOURCE: Finding Out What Matters for Youth: Testing Key Links in a Community Action Framework for Youth Development 2.7

17. Providing these Supports Can Change the Odds from 4 in 10 doing well to 7 in 10 doing well* . Gambone/Connell’s research suggests that if all young people got the supports they needed in early adolescence, the picture could change…

18. Wanted: High Quality, Coordinated Community Supports

19. National Research Council Report Recommendations Communities should provide an ample array of program opportunities… through local entities that can coordinate such work across the entire community. Communities should put in place some locally appropriate mechanism for monitoring the availability, accessibility, and quality of programs… - Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, 2002

20. Education Expert’s Recommendations Paul Hill, a leading education researcher at the University of Washington suggests that: .. the traditional boundaries between the public school system’s responsibilities and those of other community agencies are themselves part of the educational problem… and asks “How can [a] community use all its assets to provide the best education for all our children?” His answer: Community education partnerships Paul Hill, It Takes a City

21. The Challenge for All Community Stakeholders: Filling the Developmental White Space Outcome Areas Ages Times of Day ? ? ? • prevention to participation • cognitive, social, civic, physical school after-school At it’s best, school only fills a portion of developmental space

22. Who is Responsible for the Rest? • Families • Peer groups • Schools and Training Organizations • Higher Education • Youth-serving organizations • CBOs (Non-profit service providers and associations) • Businesses (jobs, internships, apprenticeships) • Faith-Based organizations • Libraries, Parks, Recreation Departments • Community-based Health and Social Service Agencies ?

23. Why are all these stakeholders needed? • All learning doesn’t happen in schools. Critical learning can and does happen outside of schools for every kind of student. • All students are not in school. Not all students who need to learn are in school (nationally,32% do not graduate on time). • All students in school are not learning. Those in school are frequently not absorbed in learning because teachers have not had to master the art of creating youth-centered learning environments. These are not indictments of schools. They are facts that have to be considered if we are going to ensure that every student is ready for college, work and life.

24. To Provide Consistent Supports: across the settings where young people spend their time Libraries, Museums, Colleges, Businesses School Classrooms & Spaces Families, CBOs, Faith, Parks & Rec, Community Centers Extracurriculars Community Schools WHERE? In the Community In the School Building There is increasing evidence that the characteristics of good learning environments are the same across the range of settings where learning happens. During the School Day Formal Learning WHEN EnrichedLearning Out of School Time Informal&AppliedLearning

25. To Foster Initiative: All settings have equal potential, all do not currently deliver

26. Wanted: Cross-System Commitments to Quality

27. The NRC Report Affirms that Some Environments are Actually Toxic

28. The Systems and Settings Where Youth Spend their time

29. Can we measure quality across them? Use a common lens to assess systems and settings

30. YES. If we get to the core of youth-adult interactions. • Point of service quality is the space where kids, adults and resources come together. It emphasizes the after-school experience from the perspective of the youth – meaning that quality is defined in terms of access to key experiences by all youth in the program. • Converging research suggests improving POS quality adds value in the most important youth outcome areas. High/Scope 2005

31. Maintaining and Improving Program Quality: New Research, New Impetus for Investments High/Scope Educational Research Foundation: “Point of service” assessments Engagement • Reflect • Make choices • Set goals and make plans Interaction • Lead and mentor • Be in small groups • Partner with adults • Experience a sense of belonging Supportive Environment • Reframing conflict • Active engagement • Skill building • Appropriate session flow • Encouragement • Welcoming atmosphere Safe Environment • Healthy food and drinks • Physically safe environment • Emergency procedures and supplies • Program space and furniture • Psychological and emotional safety High Expectations Youth Centered Policies & Practices Access • Staff availability and longevity • Program schedules • Barriers addressed • Families, other orgs, schools • Staff development • Supportive social norms • High expectations for young people • Committed to program improvement • Staff qualifications support positive youth development • Tap youth interests & build skills • Youth influence setting and activities • Youth influence structure and policy

32. Program Quality Drops as the Expectations increase

33. Program Quality Improves with Training and Capacity Building Across settings, POS Quality decreases with movement up the pyramid from safety to engagement. The High/Scope research strongly suggests that best way to improve “POS Quality” is to: • Reduce staff turnover • Increase training, professional development and on-site support • Increase opportunities for young people to have input and share control

34. QUALITY COUNTS, QUALITY COSTS, and YOUR LEADERSHIP IS REQUIRED • Improving youth outcomes requires improving community supports. • Improving community supports requires adequate investments in infrastructure – in the things that ensure that learning environments are plentiful and positive. • This means redoubled commitments from public and private leaders to focus on increasing the quantity and quality of supports for youth.

35. How do We Change from Business as Usual?

36. We Need to Think Big Incremental change can be easier to attain, but limited policy improvements for children can frustrate policy advocates and parents when conditions for children are slow to improve. — Who Speaks for America's Children?

37. Even the smallest communities have too many initiatives Civic Engagement PhysicalHealth Delinquency & Violence Pregnancy & HIV/AIDS Core Supports & Opportunities Dropouts & Illiteracy Educational Attainment Unemployment Vocational Readiness & Success Substance Abuse, Suicide, Depression Social&Emotional Health

38. We Need to Alter Our Response Set: … See a Problem, Convene a Task Force, Create a Program…. Has created a tangle of inefficiencies Children’s Services in LA County SOURCE: Margaret Dunkle

39. Think Differently the more we focus (on narrow pieces), the more we fragment (the responses), the more we fail (our children and youth). C = D x V x P Change = Dissatisfaction x Vision x Plan The Harvard Change Model suggests that the likelihood of change increases exponentially as any of these factors gets stronger. But disconnected change efforts may actually dissipate the energy for change.

40. Big Picture Vision: Core Assumptions About Youth

41. Big Picture Vision: Building on the Core Assumptions about Youth Big Picture Vision • Youth-Centered • Research-based • Actionable – using the core assumptions taking what we know about young people and how they develop to build our strategic planning framework.

42. Take Aim on the Big Picture of Youth Outcomes

43. Create Big Ticket Assessments: Take Stock of Youth Outcomes Using a Set of Key Indicators

44. Take Stock of Public & Private Community SupportsUsing a Common Set of Performance Measures

45. Alternative: Keeping Focused on the Big Picture shifting red to yellow, yellow to green Big Picture Change Planning

46. The Ready by 21 Roadmap Big Tent Partnerships that take Shared Accountability for a Big Picture Vision and work todevelop Integrated Strategies, and Sustainable Change Structures, to achieve Big Impact Results

47. Support Big Picture Change Makers: Support the Individuals and Organizations Who Are Trying to Connect the Dots Individuals and organizations with the capacity, motivation and authority to work across initiatives and entities to achieve a shared goal.

48. The Ready by 21 Challenge:To Change the Odds for Children and Youth by Changing the Way we Do Business. Moving the small gear makes a big difference

49. www.forumfyi.org