Austin, TX
Ready by 21™ Austin, a city-wide coalition of youth-service providers, educators, government agencies and youth advisors, is spearheading Austin’s Quality Counts initiative, which it sees as an opportunity to bridge institutional and policy differences toward a set of common goals for young people. The Coalition’s work includes bringing community leaders together around a common vision and metrics for supporting youth; mapping the youth services landscape to understand program availability, focus and reach and to identify gaps; and improving the quality of youth programs by building a sustainable, data-driven quality improvement system. The Quality Counts initiative will also allow the Coalition to join with the Central Texas Afterschool Network in expanding opportunities for youth worker professional development in Austin.

Contact: Suzanne Hershey, Ready by 21™ Austin
(512) 323-0024
suzanne@communitysync.com
 

Columbus, IN
The Bartholomew County Council for Youth Development is the third generation of system-building work in Columbus, Indiana focused on children and youth. The Ready by 21™ Quality Counts initiative aligns perfectly with the Council’s current priority of determining the quality of programming for children and youth and establishing a system for continuous improvement. Through this initiative, Columbus will build upon an existing monitoring system to develop a data-driven quality improvement and accountability system focused on improving staff practice. The Council and key partners will also work to develop a county-wide youth master plan that brings agencies from multiple sectors together aro und a common vision for youth and youth services.

Contact: Jacquelyn Douglas, Council for Youth Development
(812) 314-3858
douglasj@bcsc.k12.in.us
 

Grand Rapids, MI
The Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Network in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a community collaboration dedicated to ensuring that every child in the greater Grand Rapids area has access to quality after-school programs. Together with providers, the ELO Network is poised to build on its standards of care and ratchet up current efforts for systems change by linking the Ready by 21™ Quality Counts initiative with the development of a youth master plan. The ELO Network, housed within the city’s Office of Children, Youth and Families, will focus on ensuring the long-term sustainability of its efforts to build a system of quality accountability. In the area of workforce development, local stakeholders have a particular interest in retaining quality youth workers, including tackling the challenges of staff turnover and professional development.

Contact: Lynn Heemstra
(616) 456-4353
lheemstra@grcity.us
 

Indianapolis, IN
The Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY) is leading the Indianapolis Ready by 21™ Quality Counts effort and using the initiative as an opportunity to align several related but disconnected initiatives in the city in the areas of youth development, child welfare, educational achievement, crime prevention and juvenile detention reform. As part of its Quality Counts work, MCCOY will engage city leaders in the development of a youth master plan, build an on-line directory of youth-service providers, design and implement a data-driven quality improvement system, and increase local capacity to provide high quality professional development opportunities for youth workers.

Contact: John Brandon, Marion County Commission on Youth
(317) 921-1288
john.brandon@mccoyouth.org
 

Nashville, TN
For nearly 40 years Oasis Center has been working to improve the individual and community conditions that impact youth wellbeing in Nashville. As the intermediary organization leading Nashville’s Ready by 21™ Quality Counts work, Oasis Center will collaborate with other agencies across the city to strengthen youth policies and programs, with an emphasis on improving staff practice across public and private agencies serving youth. By creating common standards and working with local funders to provide the resources and supports necessary for programs to respond to those standards, Oasis Center plans to strengthen quality and improve coordination across the youth-serving field.

Contact: Michael McSurdy, Oasis Center
(615) 327-4455
mmcsurdy@oasiscenter.org
 

St. Louis, MO
St. Louis for Kids provides leadership, coordination, technical assistance and advocacy to the region’s youth serving organizations, with a focus on improving the quality, accessibility and sustainability of programs. Through the Ready by 21™ Quality Counts Initiative, St. Louis for Kids will focus on improving youth services and staff competencies, with the overall goal of helping young people be better prepared for the 21st Century. New local investments in after-school programming present a unique opportunity to devote resources to a system-level focus on quality assessment and improvement. Workforce issues have also emerged as a priority as stakeholders recognize that quality is linked to developing and supporting youth workers in a more coordinated way. The lack of opportunities for middle school and high school aged youth in St. Louis—in particular disengaged youth—is another priority.

Contact: Ron Jackson, St. Louis for Kids
(314) 241-0011
jacksonj@stlouis4kids.org

Iowa
The Iowa Collaborative for Youth Development (ICYD) is a network of state agencies established in 1999 to align and coordinate youth policies and programs. As a Ready by 21™ Quality Counts site, ICYD will continue this work and build a data-driven quality improvement system that brings common language and metrics to youth-serving agencies in the nonprofit and public sector including juvenile justice, education, child welfare, human services and public health. ICYD will also collect data about the availability, focus and reach of youth programs and about the youth development workforce and expand professional development opportunities for youth workers. All of these efforts are designed to advance key policy goals outlined in the state’s strategic plan for youth development. ICYD is combining a statewide strategy with a particular focus on Linn County, Polk County/Des Moines, and 10 North Central counties.

Contact: Amy Croll, Iowa Collaborative for Youth Development
(515) 281-5999
Amy.croll@iowa.org
 

Kentucky
Kentucky Child Now (KCN) was established in 1998 to promote the healthy development of Kentucky’s Children and youth through innovation at the state and community levels. With Lexington and Louisville as pilot communities, KCN’s Ready by 21™ Quality Counts strategy aims to improve the quality of youth programs in those cities and across the state by strengthening the policy infrastructure, mapping the youth-serving landscape, building assessment capacity, and expanding professional development opportunities. Quality Counts is a key vehicle for carrying out the Kentucky Youth Development Coordinating Council’s new strategic plan for young people in the state.

Contact: T.J. Delahanty, Kentucky Child Now
(502) 227-7722
tjdelahanty@kychildnow.org
 

New York
The Office of Children and Family Services is leading New York’s Ready by 21™ Quality Counts statewide effort, partnering with local departments of social services and county youth bureaus in four specific counties: Broome, Orange, Onondaga and Rockland. By embedding program quality assessment within monitoring functions at the state and local levels, New York hopes to increase cross-system collaboration in service of a shared vision for young people across the state. In addition to building local and state capacity to conduct ongoing quality assessment and improvement activities, OCFS will expand professional development opportunities and incentives for youth workers and develop comprehensive program inventories to inform decision makers and the public about program availability, focus and reach.

Contact: Larry Pasti, NY Office of Children and Family Services
(518) 561-8740
Larry.pasti@ocs.state.ny.us
 

Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) is a statewide advocacy organization that provides a strong voice for children and youth in Oklahoma, especially those living in poverty lacking educational opportunities, adequate health care, and facing other circumstances that put their health, well-being and future at risk. Within OICA, the Oklahoma Afterschool Network (OKAN) will lead Oklahoma’s Ready by 21™ Quality Counts initiative, which combines a state-wide agenda with a focus on two local communities – Tulsa and Norman. Working through OKAN and key partners, the initiative is focused on strengthening and building quality improvement infrastructure at the local level, while influencing the broader policy and resource landscape in order to ensure these efforts are effective and sustainable.

Contact: Katie Fitzgerald, Oklahoma Afterschool Network, OICA
(405) 236-5437 ext. 108
kfitzgerald@oica.org
 

Rhode Island
Rhode Island After School Plus Alliance (RIASPA) is a statewide advocacy and capacity building intermediary with over 400 individual members. The Providence After School Alliance (PASA) is a public/private entity focused on expanding and improving opportunities for Providence youth by building a sustainable system of after-school supports. The Ready by 21™ Quality Counts initiative provides these two organizations with the resources and impetus to take existing quality improvement efforts and infrastructure to the next level. With a statewide strategy as well as a focus on the communities of Newport, Central Falls, and Pawtucket, the lead organizations also plan to raise awareness among funders and other key state and local stakeholders in order to strengthen and institutionalize current commitments to improve the quality and reach of youth programs.

Contact: Sarah Cahill or Elizabeth Devaney
(401) 331-2869/ (401) 490-9599 ext. 103
sarah.cahill@afterschoolri.org / edevaney@mypasa.org
 

Washington
School’s Out Washington (SOWA) is a statewide intermediary focused on building community systems to support quality out-of-school time programs for children and youth through training, advocacy and leadership. Washington’s “honorary” participation as a Quality Counts site is being funded by a separate grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates is also supporting SOWA’s Learning Project, a comprehensive analysis of the after-school system in the state focused on program supply, demand, content and quality. Participating in the Ready by 21™ Quality Counts initiative is allowing SOWA to broaden the scope of their analyses to include a deeper focus on quality assessment and improvement, and puts them in relationship with a range of other cities, states and national technical assistance providers focused on system-building work in out-of-school time. SOW’s efforts target the full state but also include a focused approach in three communities: the Lower Yakima Valley, Tacoma and Shoreline.

Contact: Mari Offenbecher or Krista Galloway
(206) 323-2396
moffen@schoolsoutwashington.org / kgallowa@schoolsoutwashington.org