Highlights of YTFG Media Mentions and Links
OverageStudents Gain Ground with Personalized Programs | The Uptowner
December 15, 2009 - The Uptowner, New York, NY
Dashawn Gadsen left John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx without a diploma after four years of poor attendance. Overage and under-credited, he entered Harlem Renaissance High School in 2008, at the age of 17, in the hopes of turning around his academic record. “A real person will admit to their mistakes,” he said of his years at JFK, where his problems had less to do with his classes and more to do with his not showing up. “I had to break out of it.”
United Way Grant to Help Foster Children Further Their Education
February 19, 2009 - Inside Indiana Business, Indianapolis, IN
United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI) has been awarded a $423,600 grant from Lumina Foundation for Education to help more youth leaving the foster care system complete high school, then enroll and complete postsecondary education. The effort is part of the community’s Connected by 25 partnership --managed by UWCI -- which helps young people ages 14-25 get the support they need to succeed after being emancipated from the child welfare system.
Finding paths for lost teens
August 31, 2008 - News & Observer - Raleigh, NC,USA
And we need to find a solution that is regionwide, the way the Youth Transitions Funders Group, a consortium of foundations, worked with leaders in Boston, ...
Exploring an Alternative Approach to Juvenile Justice
August 19, 2008 – The Chapin Hall Alert
In this paper, Chapin Hall research fellow Jeffrey Butts provides an overview of the current juvenile justice system and offers suggestions for a new model using a positive youth development approach. This paper was published by the Youth Transition Funders Group as part of its "Beyond the Tunnel Problem: Addressing Cross-Cutting Issues that Impact Vulnerable Youth" series.
Foundations lead effort to change juvenile-justice systems
May 15, 2008 - Chronicle of Philanthropy
When Emily Tow Jackson first started talking to leaders of local youth organizations in the late 1990s about supporting their efforts to improve the Connecticut juvenile-justice system, many were skeptical that a grant maker wanted to get involved.
Mo. Tries New Approach on Teen Offenders
December 29, 2007 - The Associated Press
A common-cents issue, too — since it costs states between $100 and $300 a day to keep a juvenile in so-called "punitive" correctional facilities, according to a 2005 report by the Youth Transition Funders Group, a philanthropy network.
Bridge to Adulthood
January 1, 2007 -The Modesto Bee - Modesto, CA
Program helps with transition out of foster care
Four days before her 18th birthday, Lorita Brewer got the letter she'd been dreading.
Initiative Helps Connect Youth to Educational Opportunity
December 2006 - Mott Mosaic - Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
The Struggling Students and Out-of-School Youth Workgroup, part of the Youth Transitions Funders Group (YTFG), launched the initiative in 2004. Jobs for the Future (JFF) -- a nonprofit research, consulting and advocacy organization in Boston -- is the initiative’s national intermediary, providing consulting and technical assistance to the participating communities.
Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities
December Newsletter 2006
Released in July 2006, Safe Passage is the latest publication of the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG), a consortium of major philanthropic foundations dedicated to strategic collaboration to address issues of juvenile justice, foster care system reform, and out-of-school/struggling youth.
How to Address the Dropout Crisis
The Boston-Bay State Banner - December 14, 2006
Opinion Editorial
James Scott dropped out of high school when he was 17, following a rocky transition to a new school and a rough neighborhood in Philadelphia. He got caught up with the wrong crowd and began taking and selling drugs, which led to his arrest.
Note: Also in Dallas Weekly for November 30, 2006
Detailed Dropout Studies Guide Policy in City Schools
Education Week News - Bethesda,MD,USA
... In January 2005, a coalition of philanthropies called the Youth Transition Funders Group announced grants of $275,000 each to five cities—Boston, New York ...
Dropout crisis in city emerges from research: Half of 9th graders don't graduate on time
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Philadelphia Inquirer
The economy may suffer.
By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Only about half of the ninth graders in Philadelphia's public schools graduate in four years, and for some minority male students, the rate is even lower, according to a report being released today.
Honoring Progress: An Update on the NGA Center Honor States
Volume 1, Issue 2 - August 2006
Foundation Corner: "Connected by 25," An Effort of the Youth Transition Funders Group.
Making Good on a Promise: More School Topics that Oprah Might Explore
JFF's (Jobs for theFuture) CONNECTED BY 25 initiative offers new resources for improving options and outcomes for underserved and out-of- school youth. Read the op-ed from EDWEEK, as well as lessons for building an early warning data system to identify potential dropouts. (Jobs for the Future is a T.A. provider to the out-of-school/struggling students work group of YTFG.)
Foster teens start securing their financial futures
St. Petersburg Times - Jul 30 3:04 AM
Connected by 25 sets up 30 foster teens in the county with $125 in their own savings and $25 in their own debit accounts.
Promoting a Safe Passage to Adulthood
William Penn News - July 21, 2006
Produced by a national coalition of philanthropic organizations, Safe Passage explores innovative approaches to the needs of struggling youth in our communities.
Youth Development - Safe Passage: How Philanthropy Is Working Together to Help All of America's Youth Connect by Age 25.
Youth Today - July/August Issue 2006, p 23
NGA Center for Best Practices
Front and Center - June 22, 2006
Services to Youth: Youth Transition Funders Group Issues New Report
DOL Topics of Interest - July 2006
A new Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) report provides policymakers with checklists and best practices for struggling youth concerning educational
The Youth Transition Funders Group is a network of grantmakers whose mission is to help all youth make a successful transition to adulthood by age 25.
GCYF: What's New
July 2006 Just the Facts
The strategies outlined in this publication from the Youth Transition Funders Group highlight some of the ways we can make more prudent and effective ...
National Youth Employment Coalition
July 2006
Youth Transition Funders Group releases report entitled Safe Passage: How Philanthropy is Working Together to Help All of America's Youth Connect by Age 25.
BPON Parents Lend Voices to Out-of-School Youth Planning Study
Boston Parent Organizing Network May/June 2006
Throughout the months of May and June, over 50 BPON parents came together to meet at locations across the city to discuss a matter of great importance to them: what we can do to prevent Boston youth from leaving school and to reconnect those that have already left to support services.
Brevity on the Net
March 15, 2006
From the Briefing Paper Series of the Youth Transition Funders Group, this paper addresses the pipeline in which youth are pushed straight from school to juvenile detention as a result of the country’s educational reform efforts to secure its children better education.
New report urges reform and offers recommendations for the juvenile justice system
Children, Youth and Family Consortium - March 2006
The complexity of intervening with youth in the juvenile justice system requires a comprehensive blueprint for change. The paper, which follows the recommendations of the national Funders Group for Youth in Transition, offers nine tenets for reform.
CTJJA
Announcement: Weekly - February 2006
The Youth Transition Funders Group has embarked on the production of a “Beyond the Tunnel” series of briefing papers that address the cross-cutting issues...
Juvenile Justice Initiative of Illinois Newsletter
December 2005
Call them silos, tunnels, or fragmentation, we know that when a young person has trouble, the kind of services he or she receives has little to do...
New Efforts
Philadelphia Public School Notebook - Fall 2005
This recent grant from the “Youth Transition Funders Group” calls for the new Philadelphia collaborative to improve data collection and data sharing among ... Click here for additional article in PDF>>
Educational issues face youth aging out of foster care
Philadelphia Public School Notebook - Fall 2005
Inadequate coordination exists between schools and child welfare system.
One key population for dropout prevention in Philadelphia is the almost 2,900 adolescents – 14 years old and older – in the custody of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (DHS).
Building Stronger Grantee Relationships: How to Increase Impact
Just Grants! Arizona Newsletter (n.d.)
The Youth Transition Funders Group is an excellent example of this. They include many of the largest foundations – including Mott, Annie E. Casey, Ford, ...
These kids are aged out, but not grown up
St. Petersburg Times - October 2005
Good luck. There was a time when young adults got little more than a farewell when they aged out of the state's foster care system.
Aged out? It's the term social workers use for the foster children who are forced to leave the state's care when they turn 18. At that age, they are legal adults, old enough to fight for their country and fend for themselves.
Connect for Kids
Bookmark the Youth in Transition BlogSpot for Weekly News
Can’t get enough news on youth? Every Monday the Youth Transitions Funders Group is posting an update of news on youth in transition from online news publications and websites.
PNN Online – Foundations target dropout crisis
Three major foundations are putting a total of $2 million into an initiative to support local efforts to combat the silent crisis of too many students dropping out of high school.
Recent Policy Documents and News
July 2005
The Youth Transition Funding Group’s Juvenile Justice Work Group offers a new resource on the challenges and opportunities to improve the administration of ...
