1. Philadelphia Youth Network Leveraging Resources to Support the Educational Needs of Disconnected Youth American Youth Policy Forum December 14, 2009 Jenny Bogoni, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

2. Agenda About the Philadelphia Youth Network Case Study of Project U-Turn Conditions for Success

3. Vision: Philadelphia’s young people take their rightful places as full and contributing members of a world-class workforce for the region . Philadelphia Youth Network

4. Mission: As a catalyst for collective action, the Philadelphia Youth Network makes connections among individuals, organizations and systems. We increase capacity and resources in order to provide world-class preparation so our City’s youth can thrive in a regional and global economy. Philadelphia Youth Network

5. History: Started in 1999 to sustain the city’s School-to-Work system and manage provisions of the Workforce Investment Act Staffed the Youth Council from inception Serves as administrator of WIA and related investments Began with the vision to use WIA funds to leverage additional investments and broad systems change Philadelphia Youth Network

6. A Decade Later: Substantially increased its portfolio of investments to approximately $35 million in FY ‘10 Manages a large-scale youth workforce development system serving nearly 10,000 youth annually Convenes a city-wide collaborative that has managed to dramatically increase the number of high-quality educational options for disconnected youth Philadelphia Youth Network

7. Two citywide initiatives: Convenes Project U-Turn, a cross-sector collaborative, addressing city-wide capacity to support struggling students and OSY Leads WorkReady Philadelphia, the City’s youth workforce development system Philadelphia Youth Network

8. Project U-Turn: a citywide campaign to focus public attention on Philadelphia’s dropout crisis and to design strategies and leverage investments to resolve it.

9. Project U-Turn Major Successes • Tangible Results: • Nearly 5,000 multiple pathways slots representing a true portfolio of options for out-of-school and disconnected youth • Re-Engagement Center at the Central School District headquarters to assist students in re-enrolling in school • Education Support Center created inside Department of Human Services • More than $73 Million leveraged to support work plan • Political Accomplishments: • Dropout challenge is embraced by the Mayor, Schools Superindendent, and other key leaders • Assembled and maintained a high-level, cross-sector partnership

10. Setting the Stage • Strategic Decisions: • Created a formal out-of-school youth committee • Increased the Council’s investment in OSY from 30% to 50% of the WIA funds

11. In Retrospect • Key Steps: • Selected to receive funding from the Youth Transitions Funders Group – 1 of 5 cities • Made major investments in data collection and analysis on the outcomes and characteristics of struggling students in Philadelphia • Created and articulated an agenda – a Call to Action – based on the data • Strategically positioned the work to be adopted by the Mayor’s Office and the School District

12. Creating the Right Environment • Recommendations: • Develop local and regional capacity to support dropout re-engagement • Promote collection and analysis of data on dropouts and near dropouts • Support local and regional efforts to innovate

13. For more information, contact: jbogoni@pyninc.org www.pyninc.org 267-502-3737 Philadelphia Youth Network Leveraging Resources to Support the Educational Needs of Disconnected Youth