Below are featured clips from the press conference announcing the national launch of the Ready by 21™ Challenge, aimed at helping state and local leaders change the odds for youth by changing the way they do business.

United Way of America is the Forum’s signature partner for the Ready by 21 Challenge.

On April 1 and 2, Karen Finn, Senior Fellow at the Forum, joined the New York Office of Children and Family Services and the Onandaga, Rockland and Orange counties’ Youth Bureaus to kick off the Ready by 21 Quality Counts Initiative.

In early April, Merita Irby, Elizabeth Gaines and Karen Pittman traveled to New Orleans to work with the Greater New Orleans Afterschool Partnership (GNOAP).  The first in a series of face-to-face meetings that will use Ready by 21 tools, resources and technical assistance, the Forum will assist city agency officials and key stakeholders in rebuilding the fabric of programmatic

The Forum for Youth Investment issues Ready by 21™ Challenge to change the odds for youth by changing the way we do business.

Former Congressman Dick Gephardt and former Governor Tom Ridge join the Forum and national partners to move the Ready by 21 Challenge across the country – reaching communities in all 50 states over the next 5 years.

The six partners who in 2007 made formal commitments to work with the Forum to advance the Ready by 21 Challenge represent the education, government, non-profit, business and community philanthropy sectors. Each was chosen because they had pledged to do business differently and sought out the Forum to help in some way.