Rb21 Partner Newsletter 8/19 News Section

Karen Pittman Delivers Keynote at the Southeast Indiana Student Success Summit

Karen Pittman spoke about the core concepts of Ready by 21 during the keynote presentation of the Southeast Indiana Student Success Summit. The Summit offerred the community a chance to build partnerships, gain commitment and adopt an actionable plan for creating an environment full of opportunities for youth to thrive, learn, engage and contribute. Approximately 250 leaders, including many youth, attended the day long event. Caroline Brachman of the America's Promise Alliance spoke during the afternoon about the national effort to reduce America's high school dropout rates.

Tech Partner Update

A reminder that Bob Bowen will be contacting each of the technical Partners as he completes a summary chart on the array of supports the Partnership has to offer across the types of data and information we encourage leaders to use in making their decisions. When this functional overview, is completed it will be a useful tool to be used along with the summary slide. Please remember that feedback on the summary slide was due back to Larry on the 14th. If you didn't respond and have some thoughts, please send them along by the end of this week. There continues to be progress on aligning our work. Recently, Strive and the Forum have been detailing the fit between their respective efforts. Forum staff participated in the recent Strive lead meeting in Richmond, August 13-14.

Forum Co-Founder Named to Top 50 Power and Influence; Ready by 21 Leadership Well-Represented on List

Karen Pittman, president, CEO and co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment, has been named one of the top 50 CEOs in nonprofits with power and influence. This 12th annual edition of The NonProfit Times list is the first time Pittman has been recognized for her leadership in the youth development field. Making selections to The 2009 NPT Power & Influence Top 50 is based on nominations from editorial staff of The NonProfit Times, its contributing editors, suggestions from former nominees and a few selected, "plugged-in" people. Ready by 21 Partners Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way of America; Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of America's Promise Alliance; and Irv Katz, president of the National Collaboration for Youth/National Human Service Assembly make a repeat visit to the list. To view the 2009 NPT Power & Influence Top 50, published on August 1, 2009, please visit http://nptimes.com/09aug/NPTtop5019.pdf.

Ready by 21, Credentialed by 26"/ "Disconnected data = Disconnected youth" Event Recap

The Forum for Youth Investment convened teams of state policymakers from Maine, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Florida in Washington, DC on August 10 & 11 to hear from leading experts in the fields of post secondary education as well as federal funding opportunities and policies that guide data sharing and integration. In preparation of the event, the Forum's Karen Pittman and Elyse Rosenblum of Corporate Voices for Working Families (CVWF) gave a webinar on the basic concepts of Ready by 21 and the position of youth in the evolving job market. State teams were lead by Children's Cabinet directors and staff with various stakeholders from the education pipeline, including the Commissioner of Education for Tennessee, Tim Webb, and Maine, Sue Gendron. Throughout the meeting, teams met in small groups to discuss action steps to advance their work in these areas.

The Ready by 21 Partnership was featured at a dinner reception at B. Smith's during which informal presentations were given by Irv Katz, National Collaboration for Youth, and Melissa Hough, CVFWF Corporate Voices for Working Families, as well as Forum staff: Merita Irby, Jonathan Williams and Larry Pasti. Hough also participated in sessions throughout the two days of the meeting and engaged with higher education leaders around how the business sector can help ensure youth have the skills they need to be marketable in the workforce. On day two of the meeting, Shawn Stelow and Christianne Lind brought to the table research on all federal funding streams in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget which may be used to support states' data systems and integration.

As part of the Ready by 21 Partnership, the Children's Cabinet Network (CCN) will continue to have a dialogue with federal policy makers regarding federal policies (i.e., HIPPA and FERPA) which may inhibit state's ability to share data. The CCN will take on this and other topics at their upcoming annual roundtable in fall 2009.

Pittman Posting on Juvenile Justice Blog

During August, the Reclaiming Futures Every Day blog posted an article written by Forum President and Co-Founder Karen Pittman. The article focus is how the educational system can keep our youth from entering the juvenile justice system. Reclaiming Futures Every Day is a resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the Reclaiming Futures model. The blog's goals are to promote information-sharing between project sites implementing the model, and to share news, research, and information on juvenile justice reform and teen drug treatment with the public. Reclaiming Futures project receives funding support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To read the article please visit http://blog.reclaimingfutures.org/?q=juvenile-justice-system-education-pipeline-insulation.

Child Trends Senior Scholar Recognized for Making a Difference Through Sociological Research

Child Trends Senior Scholar Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D., has been selected to receive the 2009 William Foote Whyte Award from the Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Dr. Moore was recognized "for her career-long efforts in using sociological research to develop policy, evaluate programs, and further understanding of society. The fact that the beneficiaries of all these efforts are children makes it all the more laudable."

Dr. Moore has been with Child Trends since 1982 and served as President from 1992 to 2006, when she chose to return to full-time research. In recent years, she has established the Youth Development Program at Child Trends, which focuses on the development and dissemination of information about youth development, as well as about effective programs, to policy makers, funders, practitioners, and other researchers. In addition, she has led the compilation of the What Works Series that features evaluations of programs found to enhance children's development.

Ready by 21 Ad to Appear in October issue of the Atlantic

Back for a second appearance will be an full-page color ad that shares the Ready by 21 vision with readers of the October 2009 issue of the Atlantic. The ad is sponsored by Altria, parent company of Philip Morris USA, one of the supporters of the Ready by 21 Partnership. The October issue of the Atlantic will be on newsstands September 15.

Reports and Research

Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy Releases Report Featuring Ready by 21 Work in New York State

'Back on Track: Re-Connecting New York's Disconnected Youth to Education and Employment' provides an in-depth portrait of disconnected youth at the state level, and makes the case that the needs of disconnected youth - and those at risk of disconnection - should be a vital priority in New York State. Existing programs that work and opportunities for new initiatives are also outlined in the report. The Ready by 21 Quality Counts Initiative is featured in the report. The report can be reviewed at http://www.scaany.org/documents/back_on_track_report_000.pdf.

Lumina Funded Research Project Finds that Southern States Have Greatest Need for Higher Education

A new project financed by the Lumina Foundation for Education is measuring the educational needs of states and regions by combining and comparing existing census data, such as degree completions, poverty rates, and population growth. Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, and Georgia are the states where the education system faces the greatest challenges in meeting the economic needs of a fast-growing population, according to data from the Educational Needs Index. The states with the least challenges in that area are North Dakota, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota, the project found. To view the project please go to http://www.educationalneedsindex.com/index.php.

Publishing Date:

August 19, 2009