A look back at the 2017 Annual OYN Summit 
OYN Summit Recap

OYN  2017 Annual Summit  Highlights 
The Opportunity Youth
Network hosted the 2017  Annual Summit in Washington D.C. 

The Summit brought together national nonprofit, government, business, philanthropic and young leaders to :
  • Share progress made by all sectors to advance social, racial and economic justice for opportunity youth.
  • Align related efforts and strengthen existing partnerships.
  • Advance policy, communication and advocacy activities that support opportunity youth.  
The Data data
Kristen Lewis (Co Director, Measure of America)  shared the latest data  on opportunity youth to track the field's progress, including data on the disparities across race, place and gender.
  • In 2013, OYN members set a goal for the collective field to reduce the number of disconnected youth in the country by one million over five years.
  • Measure of America (MOA) data show in the past five years the number of disconnected youth has decreased by 900,000.

Access MOA's opportunity youth related data including the: Understanding Youth Disconnection Tool, Promising Gains, Persistent Gaps Report and Segregated Opportunity: Visualizing Youth Disconnection Tool. 
The State of the Fieldstate
 
The "state of the field" plenary is a staple of every OYN Summit. It is a chance for our cross-sector members to get up to speed on the most important developments that have occurred in the last year in government, business, philanthropy, place-based efforts and youth leadership.
 
Moderator: Gail Gershon, Executive Director, Community Leadership, Gap Inc.
  • Business: Nicole Trimble, Executive Director, FSG Impact Hiring
  • Government: Kisha Bird, Director, Youth Policy, Center for Law and Social Policy
  • Philanthropy: Stephanie Krauss, Staff Consultant, Youth Transition Funders Group
  • Place-based Efforts: Monique Miles, Deputy Director, Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute
  • Youth Leadership: Shawnice Jackson, National Council of Young Leaders of Opportunity Youth United (Public Allies)
Each panelist shared 3 of most important sector specific developments and trends that have occurred in the last year and the 1 important effort that needs to happen in this upcoming year. 

See snapshots of their responses here:  
     
Strategic Alignment Sessions 
This year OYN did away with the plenaries, panels and presentations. The majority of the day was structured in strategic alignment working sessions to tap into the collective power of the participants.

Each working session was focused on a key opportunity or challenge that no one organization or sector could tackle by themselves. Facilitators and presenters provided framing remarks on the topic and then participants dived into discussion and action.  

Topics included How might we as a field: 
  • Ensure the Reconnecting Youth Campaign: Unleashing Limitless Potential is effective? 
  • Create more intentional service year experiences to help young people who have the least amount of access to opportunities find a pathway to a productive career?
  • Craft strategies for supporting, organizing and building partnerships between national employers interested in hiring youth and non-profit providers that can train and support opportunity youth to succeed in the workforce? 
  • Develop a shared plan for commissioning, and then using, communications research on the best way to frame messages about opportunity youth?
  • Increase political will and funding for Opportunity Youth through powerful citizen action?
  • Develop a shared, authoritative approach to calculating the return on investment (ROI) for reconnecting opportunity youth to school, jobs and service?
  • Integrate youth leadership development principles into our collective programming and build a pipeline of youth leaders into all sectors (business, government, philanthropy and nonprofits)?
  • Identify and advance routes to get to scale? 








Make Me Smart: Briefings by Youth Organizersmaking
National and local youth advocates and organizers doing powerful advocacy on specific issues, populations and systems led table top briefings. The youth organizers shared critical developments and "must-know" updates on what has happened in the past year and the tangible ways adult allies could take action. 

Presenters included:

Amanda Shabowich (Opportunity Youth United), Brenda Perez (Many Languages One Voice), Da'Quon Beaver (Campaign for Youth Justice), Frances Medina (Spark Action), Francisco Garcia (Opportunity Youth United - Public Allies),  Genesis Ejurolu (Opportunity Youth United), James Fields (Opportunity Youth United - Mikva Challenge), Jessie McCormick ( Sasha Bruce Youthwork), Kings Floyd (National Council for Independent Living), Kyle Knox (National Council of Young Leaders of Opportunity Youth United - Aspen Institute), Lashon Amado (National Council of Young Leaders of Opportunity Youth United - YouthBuild), Lena McKnight (Opportunity Youth United - YouthBuild), Marlen Mendoza (Center for Law and Social Policy), Ramean Clowney (National Council of Young Leaders of Opportunity Youth United - Philadelphia Youth Network), Sara Matthew (Opportunity Youth Network) and Terry Green (Think Make Live, Opportunity Youth United - YouthBuild)








Young Leaders in Actionyoun

  
Upcoming Eventsevents


Winter
 
Feb 11-14
Location: Washington, DC 
Convener: T he Corps Network

Location: Virtual
Convener: T he Forum for Youth Investment




Spring

March 19-20
Location: Washington, DC 
Convener: National Network for Youth
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Convener: National League of Cities Reengagement Network 

April 11-13 
Location:  Chicago, IL
Convener: PolicyLink

May 3
Opportunity Fair
Location: Atlanta, GA
Convener:   100,000 Opportunities Initiative

May 14-17
Opportunity Youth Forum Spring 2018 Convening
Location:  South King County, WA
Conveners:  Aspen Forum for Community Solutions & Jobs for the Future

 


















Any Resources or Updates? If you have any resources or updates you would like to include in the next edition of OYNews, please email Yelena Nemoy at [email protected] or Sara Matthew at [email protected].
The Opportunity Youth Network eNewsletter (OYNews) highlights opportunity youth related resources, news and announcements from our partners and the field. OYNews is adapted from the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions' OYIF Community Update. 
The Opportunity Youth Network (OYN) brings together the country's leading funders and corporations of all sizes; federal, state and local government officials; non-profits; and formerly disconnected youth to work together to reconnect one million opportunity youth in five years. 

Opportunity Youth Network Co-conveners: 
Aspen Forum for Community Solutions | The Forum for Youth Investment | Gap Inc.