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Documents dealing with topics or themes key to the work of NCWD/Youth. These papers include a synthesis of research, definitions, information on programs and practices, outcomes, measurements, and references.
Read Career-Focused Services in Adobe Acrobat format 
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Our nation’s changing economy requires workers to attain increasingly higher job skills. Leaders in education, workforce development, and economic development recognize the need to help workers meet this challenge and to help employers find qualified employees. This case study report examines the efforts of community colleges to function as intermediaries in meeting the local workforce development needs of employers and promoting career opportunities and job attainment for students, including those with disabilities.
Read the Blazing the Trail report in Adobe Acrobat format
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The Blazing the Trail summit provided a unique experience for a national dialogue on actions that need to be taken to improve policy and practice in the youth development and leadership field, and to ensure that youth with disabilities (including those with mental health needs), are included in opportunities available to all youth. The report details the dialogue that took place among youth with and without disabilities, state and federal policy makers, and community, state, and federal organization leaders including the important priority action steps identified by the participants.
These five steps are:
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.
Read the full report of the Foster Youth Demonstration Project in Adobe Acrobat format
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Read the executive summary of the Foster Youth Demonstration Project in Adobe Acrobat format
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According to a 2008 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 26,000 youth age out of the foster care system each year. Research shows that youth who leave foster care are more likely to drop out of high school, to be unemployed, and to be dependent on public assistance when compared to other youth.. The Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor funded a five-state demonstration project in the states with the highest concentration of youth in foster care (California, Illinois Michigan, New York, and Texas). Casey Family Programs funded the Institute for Educational Leadership, and a series of experts in the field to evaluate a series of demonstration projects around foster care transition. One of the most significant findings to emerge from the data is that youth who receive services for more quarters are much more likely to attain a positive outcome than youth who receive the same service for fewer quarters. Additionally, as the number of quarters participants received college preparation services increased, so did the number achieving a postsecondary outcome.
This evaluation adds to the overall work that NCWD/Youth has completed around youth in foster care which includes Negotiating the Curves Toward Employment: A Guide About Youth Involved in the Foster Care System.
Read Preparing All Youth for Academic and Career Readiness in Adobe Acrobat format
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This paper identifies the challenges in practice and policy for successful post-school outcomes and it offers recommendations on how states, local school districts and individual high schools can prepare all youth, including youth with disabilities, with the academic and career readiness skills. Based on two symposia and a year-long research effort, this paper identifies five broad policy and practice areas: (1) Instruction, Curriculum and Structure; (2) Assessment Practices; (3) Graduation Requirements; (4) Community and Family Connections; and (5) Data Quality Challenges. The paper suggests that by addressing these areas, a range of high school policy makers at the national, state, and local levels can improve their approaches for meeting the multiple and complex challenges of all their students.
Read Transitioning Youth with Mental Health Needs in Adobe Acrobat format
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NCWD/Youth, with funding from the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) of the U.S. Department of Labor, carried out a study on successful strategies to help youth with mental health needs transition to postsecondary education, employment, and independent lives. With a focus primarily on the role of skills development, work, and career exploration, case studies were conducted of five promising program sites, and program design features and system-level policies that appear to help youth and young adults with mental health conditions better transition into adulthood and life-long success were identified.
Read Performance Measures in Adobe Acrobat format
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This paper reviews what we know about performance measures and their effects and highlights key issues and approaches for addressing adjustments to them. It is intended for a broad audience of policymakers and program administrators responsible for such programs as education, ranging from public (K-12) and adult education, to career and technical education, workforce development, and vocational rehabilitation. Thus, it encompasses a wide swath of publicly funded interventions designed to help hard-to-serve adults and youth, regardless of their background or characteristics, succeed in society and in the labor market. The paper concludes that programs would benefit considerably from adopting mechanisms for adjusting performance and providing incentives to encourage services to disadvantaged adults and youth and other hard-to-serve target populations.
Read Youth Development & Leadership in
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This paper assists youth service practitioners, administrators, and policy makers in defining, differentiating, and providing youth development and leadership programs and activities, which are important components of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). All effective youth programs have youth development at their core and all effective youth leadership programs build on solid youth development principles.
Read Knowledge, Skills and Abilities of Youth Service Practitioners in Adobe Acrobat format
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The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of practice within the workforce development system in reference to the competencies — the combined knowledge, skills, and abilities — of youth service practitioners. The paper looks at how and by whom: 1) required content is established; 2) training and education based upon that content are provided; and 3) credentials are given. Additionally, the paper outlines some possible action steps to build stronger connections among organizations and workforce development institutions to ensure that skilled staff serves youth and employers.
Read Making the Connections in Adobe Acrobat format
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The paper describes how a new organizational strategy - intermediaries - can link the supply and demand sides of workforce development. By aligning and brokering multiple services across institutional and funding sources, intermediary organizations can play an important role in improving employment outcomes for youth with disabilities.
Read Toward Universal Access in the Workforce Development System in Adobe Acrobat format
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This paper explores the core concepts of “universal service,” which has a very distinct meaning inside the employment and training arena, and that of “universal design” in the context of disability public policy. In addition, this paper urges the adoption of a comprehensive definition of universal access that would apply across all titles of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) to all programs and services in the One-Stop system and incorporate elements of universal access, universal service, architectural accessibility, programmatic accessibility, and universal design, as defined in the disability policy arena.
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2002–2008 NCWD/Youth |
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8 April, 2009
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NCWD/Youth | c/o Institute for Educational Leadership |
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