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CONNECTEDBY25
SPOTLIGHT
OSY Spotlight:
New York City, NY - New York, NY, is one
of the places gaining national attention for its
innovative new efforts around high school dropout
recovery. In 2005, if you recall, the YTFG Out-of-School
Youth Work Group supported New York City, NY, and four
other communities to collect data and develop a plan to
address the high school dropout crisis through the
Connected by 25 Strategic Assessment Initiative. The Initiative
was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, and other local YTFG member
institutions.
Although
schools and community-based organizations have been
working in partnership for over 25 years, stakeholders
in the new effort suggest that the “ unprecedented
amounts of data and new investments in youth at risk of
dropping out have brought the educational community to a
turning point in its work.” The city
recently had a conference to take stock of the new work – discussing its promise, challenges, and needs for
improvement. The work is often touted as pioneering because it
encourages partnerships between school administration
and CBOs.
As part of this new effort, models for keeping
older youth in school often offer “different schedules,
formats and services to address the complex and varied
needs” of youth who are over-age and
under-credited.
To learn more about
this promising work, check out the conference notes at
http://betterfutures.fcny.org/betterfutures.
Our
Out-of-School Youth Work Group is very excited about its small part in
the emerging success of this work.
POLICYMATTERS
As
we try to understand the policy implications of our work
in 2008, we've compiled a short list of policy papers
developed by YTFG grantees and others interested in
building support for older youth. Although this
isn't a comprehensive list, you might find it useful for
expediting your learning on policy priorities
recommended by youth advocates as the campaign season
begins:
Juvenile
Justice:
Reauthorization of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act (prepared by ACT 4
Juvenile Justice)
Community-Based
Services:
Reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act- NCLB (prepared by
Communities in Schools, Inc.)
Education:
Reauthorization of NCLB
(prepared by Education Trust)
Overall
Youth Development:
Reauthorization of NCLB
(prepared by National Collaboration for Youth)
Foster
Care:
National and State Legislation
(prepared by FCWG and Finance Project)
Disconnected
Youth:
For a copy of the Campaign for Youth's Advancing a
National Investment Strategy for Reconnecting Our
Youth draft paper, contact Lisa McGill at lmcgill@ytfg.org . We have a copy for review and comments for YTFG
Action Group Members, although the copy is not for
citation and wide distribution.
English
Language Learners:
Reauthorization of NCLB
(prepared by National Council of La Raza) |
