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FOSTER
CARE
May is National Foster Care
Month!
There are 518,000 children and youth
in foster care in the
United
States.
Make sure that your voice is heard… learn more about
ways you can get involved at www.fostercaremonth.org!
NGA
Policy
Academy
on Youth Transitioning Out of
Care
The
National Governors'
Association
Center
for Best Practices expects to convene cross-agency teams
of senior leaders for its
NGA
Policy
Academy
on Youth Transitioning Out of Care. The academy is
sponsored with support from the Jim Casey Youth
Opportunities Initiative and the Eckerd Family
Foundation. Cross-agency teams are expected to
develop action plans for substantially improving the
policies and practices affecting foster youth in their
respective states. Applications have been sent to
all governors, and six states will be selected to
participate in Policy
Academy
activities beginning in May 2006 and continuing through
March 2007. Major activities will include site
visits from NGA staff, two three-day academy meetings
(July and Fall 2006), and a variety of technical
assistance opportunities.
Pew
Commission on Children in Foster
Care
The
transcript from last month’s “Strengthening Courts,
Improving Foster Care” briefing of the Pew Commission is
now available on line. Click
here>>
The
Commission includes some of the nation's leading child
welfare experts, and was charged with developing
practical, evidence-based recommendations related to
federal financing and court oversight of child welfare
to improve outcomes for children in foster care,
particularly to expedite the movement of children from
foster care to safe, permanent families and to prevent
unnecessary placements in foster care. For a progress
report of the Pew Commission’s Recommendations to date,
click
here>>
CCFY
Donor Guides for Jim Casey Youth
Sites
With
support from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities
Initiative, CCFY has created a customizable Donor Guide
as a tool to generate support for youth in and
transitioning out of foster care in Initiative
sites. With
an overview to ground readers in the harsh realities of
life in and after foster care, the guide focuses largely
on the Initiative’s centerpiece, the Opportunity
Passport™, and specific opportunities for donors to make
a positive difference in the lives of these youth. As part of the
process, CCFY conducted a focus group with
Atlanta
donors to get feedback on the guide. An
“instructions” section on the Donor Guide CD contains
advice regarding the protocols that should be in place
before donations are solicited, suggestions by focus
group participants, and detailed information about how
to customize the guide.
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JUVENILE
JUSTICE
Are youth courts really effective
alternatives to traditional juvenile
courts? In a new
paper for Greatness to Grow, Sarah Pearson argues,
“Youth courts educate not only about court procedure,
sentencing options, and trial techniques but also about
the structure of justice systems, the meaning of
justice, the role of rehabilitation, and the
relationship between rights and responsibilities.” She
concludes that youth advocates who want youth to be
actively engaged in real-life problem solving should
seriously consider starting a youth court. Check out Youth Courts: An Alternative to
Traditional Juvenile Courts by clicking
here.
Improving
Outcomes for Youth Offenders with
Mental Illness - In
Arizona,
ValueOptions’ Court Advocacy and Jail Diversion Programs
– in partnership with
Maricopa
County Comprehensive Mental Health
Court
and Maricopa County Adult Probation - have
significantly reduced the rate of new offenses among
offenders with Serious Mental Illness to five percent,
nearly half the relapse rate of general population
offenders. Its programs were recently presented at the
National GAINS conference as an example of innovative
programs being developed which transform the treatment
and recovery of persons with Serious Mental
Illness. Read
More>>
New
Reports on Juvenile
Justice
Justice Policy Institute
– A new report from the Justice Policy
Institute profiles how, by rethinking how they fund
their juvenile justice systems, Pennsylvania,
California, Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois have kept more
youth at home, reduced the number of youth incarcerated,
and promoted better outcomes for young people. Click here for the
report.
Department
of Justice Office of Justice Programs - Juvenile
Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report,
the third in a series, has critical information about
juvenile crime, victimization and the juvenile justice
system across the country. Click here to access the
report.
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SPOTLIGHT ON FUNDERS
Carnegie
Corp. of
New
York
A
March poll from Carnegie Corporation of New York found
that more than two in three adults (68 percent) say that
the best way to improve public education is to
concentrate on the district as a whole and improve the
entire system of high schools in a community. Only 26
percent say the best way is to fix one high school at a
time. Read
More>>
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YTFG CALENDAR
For
regular updates on vulnerable youth forums and issues
relevant to funders, go to the YTFG events
calendar!
Don’t
forget to check out the web-based Celebrating
Families Calendar by Connect for Kids. Click
here. |
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The YTFG Action Group
Convenings>> The first
meeting was held in Miami, FL, during the first
week of April. Click
here
for
a meeting summary. The second meeting
will be held in Chicago, IL,
on October 16 - 18, 2006. Please contact
Lisa McGill at lmcgill@ytfg.org if you
are an action group member and need more
information.
Join YTFG! Are
you a grantmaker interested in being an action
group member of YTFG? Materials for prospective
members are available upon request. Contact
memberservices@ytfg.org,
or be in touch with members of the YTFG steering
committee and work group
co-chairs. |
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The
Youth Policy Action
Center,
a website that engages young people (and adults) in
real-time democracy to change policies that affect young
people's lives, has been updated! You are encouraged to
visit the site and join the mailing list. The new site
features include: Action Alerts, State Pages, Policy
Tools, Information Portal, Social Networking, and
Videos, Voting, Volunteering. Read
More>>
YTFG RSS
NEWSFEED
Can’t wait for the quarterly
newsletter?
YTFG manages a weekly
newsfeed, This
Week’s News: Youth in Transition, to keep you
up-to-date on issues affecting disconnected youth or
those at risk of being disconnected. Updates are
available in RSS newsfeed format on the YTFG website every Monday
under YTFG SPOTLIGHT. Please check out
the newsfeed and tell us what you
think!
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Legislation News
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Trying
to wrap your brain around TANF? Check out these
new resources:
CLASP
Strategies for Increasing
Participation in TANF Education and Training
Activities
CLASP
Implementing
the TANF Changes
Finance
Project
Welfare
Reauthorization Resources
Want to learn more about
addressing key challenges to creating better aligned and
more effective youth policy? Check out this Research
and Policy Report, co-authored by the Forum for
Youth Investment and the National Conference of State
Legislatures.
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