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The Forum for Youth Investment
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Welcome to the July 2008 Ready by 21™ Quality Counts Connections. This monthly newsletter keeps site teams aware of developments related to the initiative. Contact Nalini if you would like team members added or deleted from this list.
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| Updates
With summer in full swing, we continue to be inspired by the hard work going on across the sites! We look forward to connecting with all site leads during some group conference calls during August (more info under "events"), to talk about a possible late-fall convening and introduce a new Ready by 21 tool. Here is a sampling of developments over the past month.
- Ready by 21 Coalitions in both both Austin and Columbus are working to create community consensus around key outcomes and indicators.
- Nashville kicked off their quality improvement efforts by launching the YPQA training sequence this past week with 9 pilot sites, and the Mayor's Office annouced a new after-school initiative for the city.
- Rhode Island is preparing to pilot their program landscape mapping survey tool in two communities.
- Iowa is getting ready to launch a stateside survey of frontline youth workers.
- The Fourm hosted a 2-day Ready by 21 training institute in late June. Site leads from New York participated with change makers from across the country.
- The Forum hosted the 4th annual Children's Cabinet meeting (NY, IA, KY and OK were represented) and 1st annual Youth Council meeting (IA, WA and IN were represented) in New Orleans.
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Site Spotlight: Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy provides state level leadership for this work, working through the OK Afterschool Network at the state level and out-of-school-time (OST) networks in Norman and Tulsa. The local networks are using RB21 QC as an opportunity to connect existing programs; expand quality assessment tools and resources available to local programs; strengthen youth worker capacities; and increase community support for quality OST programming. Both local efforts are community-wide partnerships involving the city, school, youth-serving organizations, United Way, faith-based networks and the business sector.
Policy/Leadership Horsepower. Quality will be a featured agenda item at the Governor's Summit on Extended Learning Opportunities in October. Co-sponsors include the National Governors Association, Oklahoma State Department of Education and Oklahoma Afterschool Network. In Tulsa, Mayor Kathy Taylor's Office received a National League of Cities after-school grant that will provide additional technical assistance to support the development of a comprehensive OST system. In Norman this spring, a RB21 QC kick-off luncheon hosted by the Sarkeys Foundation was attended by Mayor Cindy Rosenthal and 30+ community leaders.
The Program Landscape. The Tulsa YD/OST working group, a core component of the Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative, used RB21 QC materials to refine an informal program mapping activity in 2007. That process pointed to the importance of consistent city-wide program quality standards, setting the stage for the introduction of the YPQA. In Norman, the United Way and local OST network plan to map the program landscape this fall.
Quality Improvement and Workforce Development. In 2007 the Tulsa YD/OST work group identified workforce capacity as a pressing issue. That group recently fielded a survey of frontline youth workers; responses are now being compiled and will be reported in conjunction with Lights On Afterschool activities in October. Next steps include launching the Advancing Youth Development training and building local capacity to offer it regularly in Tulsa and Norman.
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National Partner Spotlight
United Way. The partnership between the Fourm for Youth Investment and United Way of America will be further expanding in the coming days. On August 4th, Miles Magbie will be joining the team at UWA as the Ready by 21 Manager.
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| Tools and Resources
Questioning Quality: Where Do We Go Now?. This PPT summarizes presentations made by Charles Smith of the Center for Program Quality and Nicole Yohalem, Program Director at the Forum, for a University of Minnesota and Harvard-sponsored webinar.
Ready by 21: At-a-Glance Chart. The Forum introduced this one pager at the June training institute. It summarizes the key building blocks of the Ready by 21 Challenge. Working across the chart (the three gears) is as important as working down through the building blocks. To learn more about how you can apply this tool in your work, make sure you participate in one of the two upcoming site lead conference calls being held in August (more information below).
Ready by 21 Challenge. This recent power point was presented to Altria and lays out the latest, greatest basic slides describing the Ready by 21 Challenge.
Iowa's Dropout Prevention Summit. This report summarizes the event held in Iowa this spring, with highlights from several sessions and and state and local plans going forward. Click here to see the agenda from the event.
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Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Site Lead Conference Calls. On August 12 and August 20 at 1:00 EST pm we will host conference calls with Quality Counts site leads. Please make sure that your site is represented on one of these calls. We will be discussing a possible late-fall convening and reviewing a new Ready by 21 tool we think can help advance your work. Email Nalini to confirm which call you will participate in (or if neither one is possible) at nalini@forumfyi.org.
Youth Worker Methods Training of Trainers. The next Youth Work Methods TOT will be held October 28-30 at the High/Scope Retreat & Meeting Center in Clinton, Michigan. The online component will begin on September 29. For information contact Kynisha at kynisha@cypq.org
Iowa Ready by 21 Training. Iowa will be hosting a two-day Ready by 21 training this coming fall. Stay tuned for more details and registration information.
AYD Training of Facilitators. The Advancing Youth Development Training of Facilitators workshop is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 3-5, 2009 in Indianapolis. Confirmation and additional information about how to send trainers to participate will be available soon.
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