The Blazing the Trail Summit, sponsored by the Office of Disability Employment Policy, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and many other partners, provided a forum for a national dialogue on actions needed to improve policy and practice in the youth development and leadership field. Ensuring that youth with disabilities (including those with mental health needs), are included in opportunities available to all youth was another major focus. The report synthesizes the conversations that took place among youth with and without disabilities, state and federal policy makers, and community, state, and federal organization leaders during this two day meeting, and the important priority action steps identified by the participants.
These five topical areas discussed included the following: (1) Helping youth achieve youth development and leadership outcomes, (2) Promoting youth guided/youth directed policy, (3) Inclusion of youth with disabilities, (4) Partnership development, and (5) Professional development. The report also identifies the challenges that surfaced during discussion and the next steps to be taken by all stakeholders in the field of youth development and youth leadership.
NYEC’s newest publication explores how Indiana, Massachusetts, and North Carolina have created polices and funding streams to support a variety of secondary education options for young people. Building upon a previous report by NYEC, Financing Alternative Education Pathways: Profiles and Policy, highlights alternative education schools and programs accessing stat and local education funds in Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, New York, Texas, Virginia, California, and Illinois.
Casey Family Program’s 2020 Strategy aims to safely reduce by 50% the number of children in foster care by the year 2020. In this report, their 2007 accomplishments are presented. They include providing direct services to more than 16,000 children and families through nine field offices, consulting with states and counties, and educating lawmakers about the need for change.
View the Foster Youth Demonstration Project: Final Evaluation Report, completed in collaboration with the Institute for Educational Leadership and Casey Family Programs. This evaluation of a series of demonstration projects around foster care transition added to the overall work that NCWD/Youth has completed around youth in foster care which also includes Negotiating the Curves Toward Employment: A Guide About Youth Involvement in the Foster Care System.
School Districts Gather to Kick of Individualized Learning Plan R & D Project:
Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) are now required in more than 20 states. They are strategic planning tools which assist students in course selection, and provide opportunities for coordinated learning experiences. A major focus of these plans is career development and career exploration to help students identify and achieve post-secondary goals, including employment. On September 17-18, NCWD/Youth convened representatives from 15 school districts from Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Washington to launch a longitudinal research and demonstration project around the use of ILPs. The primary goals of the project are to evaluate the usage of ILPs for all students and to identify “promising practices” associated with ILPs, including the connectedness to IEPs. NCWD/Youth is proud to have one of our partners, the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin as the primary researchers.
Emerging Leaders Attending an Advanced Leadership Academy:
A part of its youth development and leadership area of work with the Office of Disability Employment Policy, NCWD/Youth recruited the Youth Leadership Consortium (YLC), an invitation only group of young leaders with and without disabilities from across different youth development and leadership networks and organizations. These emerging leaders will be brought together annually (and in bi-monthly conference calls) to engage in conversations about the challenges, opportunities, and successes that face the next generation of leaders. In addition, they will be provided with opportunities to improve their leadership and employability skills, and develop tools and resources to better prepare themselves and others for taking the next steps towards maximizing their leadership potential. NCWD/Youth hosted its first face-to-face Advanced Leadership Academy in Washington, DC October 17-19.
Partner’s Highlight
PACER Receives National ALLIANCE Grant
PACER Center was awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Education on October 1, 2008 to continue as the National Center for the Technical Assistance ALLIANCE for Parent Centers for the next five years. Through this grant, PACER will provide resources, information, and training to the nation’s 105 Parent Centers that serve the families of the 7 million children in the United States receiving special education services. PACER has been the ALLIANCE National Center since 1997.
National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth (NCLD/Youth) Publications
NCLD/Youth has released a few great publications for youth with disabilities and staff of youth development and leadership programs. The Disability History and Identity Self-Assessment includes a “pop-quiz” teaching tool and a short section where a young person could discuss their own personal experience with identifying how they feel about their disability, and how they feel about societal expectations and stigmas they deal with on a daily basis. Am I Learning to Lead? focuses on the needs of youth with disabilities and intends to help an emerging leader look at how they’re growing in terms of achieving outcomes identified in the field of youth development and leadership. A companion piece, Are They Learning to Lead?, was also created to focus on giving staff of youth development and leadership programs an opportunity to evaluate how their program is helping youth achieve outcomes in researched-based areas.
Coalition for Community Schools Announces a New “Community Agenda”
Because schools are one of the central institutions in the lives of children and youth, The Community Agenda promotes partnerships that address complex social problems, such as poverty, violence, substance abuse, and family instability that negatively impact student performance. Schools are the place where community leaders, institutions and citizens can bring together their resources to support student learning and engage students as active learners and contributors to their community.
“The Community Agenda is a workable set of solutions that are already being implemented in communities across the country,” said Director of the Coalition for Community Schools, Marty Blank. “Communities matter, whether urban, suburban or rural, and everyone in the community has a role to play in helping young people to thrive. Every student will benefit from a united effort to provide our young people and their families with more connections, more opportunities, and more learning time.”
Empowering Youth Achievement in a New Economy
The 2008 Youth Development Symposium, hosted by the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will be held on November 17-20 in Chicago, Illinois. The Youth Development Symposium is designed to provide best practices and program guidance to workforce development professionals who serve youth, and leadership growth opportunities for the youth they serve. NCWD/Youth and our partners will be presenting at this conference including during the pre-symposium workshops: It’s Not Crazymaking: Serving Youth with Mental Health Needs and Employer Relations: Beyond the Handshake.
Click here for registration information.
