October 18th, 2017
READY NEWS
News & resources from the Forum and the field about collaborative work to get young people ready by 21.

Youth Today: "Hands on Learning: How Learning By Doing Can Widen World for Young People"

In Philadelphia, youth are given an opportunity to participate in hands-on work experiences at the Philadelphia Wooden Boat Factory. Housed in an old brick building in a marginalized area of the city, youth ages 14 through 21 are able to participate in an after-school boat building and maritime arts program which provides "intentional strategy to help young people develop socially and emotionally."
 
Dr. Charles Smith, Founder and Chief Knowledge Officer at the Forum's Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, commented that this display of active learning "motivates young people and gives them the opportunity to practice and demonstrate skills" while presenting opportunities for social emotional learning skill development.
 
Social and Emotional Learningsel
Social and Emotional Learning for Staff and Leadership
Free Webinar
November 9, 2017
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT

Youth need and deserve developmentally respectful environments, relationships and experiences that help build social, emotional and other critical life skills.
 
Youth-serving organizations can and should provide this, and staff development improves the ability to do so. This year, Anchorage Youth Development Coalition (AYDC) engaged executive directors, managers, and frontline staff in a 10-month social and emotional intelligence leadership experience-one of the first of its kind. Building on a session at the 2017 Ready by 21 National Meeting in Austin, TX, this webinar will provide an opportunity to learn about this approach and to take back ideas for supporting yourself, peers and staff.

Parental Involvement and Community Development parental
Involvement, Engagement, and Community: Analyzing Factors That Influence Parental Participation in a Majority-Minority Urban School District
A new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston examines dimensions of parental participation in their children's schools and determinants of that participation. The literature on this issue explores questions of how parents participate and what predicts parental participation. The authors drew upon a survey of 400 parents of children attending public elementary schools in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The district is a majority-Hispanic school district with strong ties to immigrant communities, primarily from the Dominican Republic.
 
The data suggests that income and very recent immigration, but not educational attainment, can be important factors in involvement, while family circumstances are the main correlate of engagement.

Moving from Evidence-Based Programs to Evidence-Based Practices
Blog by Alex Sileo, Research Associate and Special Assistant, The Forum for Youth Investment

This blog is the fifth in a series of junior Forum for Youth Investment staff and interns sharing their perspectives and engaging with the Forum's Changing the Odds concepts.

The Forum for Youth Investment recently brought together senior career staff at the federal level and leaders from nongovernmental organizations to hear about two promising approaches that utilize evidence-based practices as opposed to evidence-based programs. Supported by the W.T. Grant and Annie E. Casey Foundations, the event included multiple presentations and a roundtable discussion designed to facilitate dialogue about this approach's applicability to other policy areas and any potential challenges in implementing it.
 
By practices, the Forum means the individual activities inside the 'black box' of a program that cause it to be successful. This can be certain behaviors that staff are supposed to replicate, certain structures that need to be in place or certain levels of 'dosage' for particular interventions. A practices-based approach allows for local policymakers to use evidence to ensure that their homegrown program is effective even if they are unable to find an evidence-based program that fits their population or environment or have limited capacity to implement an RCT-backed program.
 
Collective Impactcollective
How to be a Collaborative Leader
Tamarack Institute recently released the latest paper in a series on community change focused on collaborative leadership and the qualities leaders need to possess to tackle complex issues facing cities of the future.
 
Lead author Mark Holmgren followed a collaborative leadership process by co-creating this paper together with 35 others. The paper, titled "35 Voices on Collaborative Leadership & Co-Creating Cities of the Future," summarizes key ideas and reflects on:
 
  • Five attributes or qualities of an effective collaborative leader
  • A summary of the top issues and challenges that cities face
  • Ideas on how to tackle five key issues that cities need to address
  • Visions for cities of the future and how collaborative leadership can be a catalyst for change
 

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