http://www.clasp.org/issues/rss/topic_publications.xml?type=youth&id=0007 Resources and Publications from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) en-us Sat, 18 May 2013 16:38:23 -0500 info@clasp.org webmaster@clasp.org 40 Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-April-2013.htm This periodic update for the field is a part of CLASP's ongoing work to advance policy and practice that will dramatically improve the education, employment, and life outcomes for youth in communities of high youth distress. It highlights policy happenings in education, training and youth development that impact black male achievement. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-April-2013.htm Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /resources_and_publications/publication?id=1230&list=publications In a single generation, our nation is faced with the prospect of losing over 132,000 black men and boys to gun violence. Moreover, for every black male who dies from gun violence, there are another 24 others who suffer non-fatal injuries - making the impacts of such violence even greater. In black communities, gun violence is about far more than reforming gun control laws and empowering law enforcement. Gun violence for young black males predominates in communities where residents live in concentrated disadvantage with high rates of unemployment, school dropout, and poverty. The absence of opportunities in these communities gives rise to criminal activity and the loss of too many young lives. Solving the crisis of gun violence in communities requires that America address the issue of concentrated poverty and geography. The rebuilding and strengthening of these communities through creating infrastructure to provide improved education and employment opportunities for black youth will significantly reduce issues of gun violence. http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1230&list=publications Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-February-2013.htm This periodic update for the field is a part of CLASP's ongoing work to advance policy and practice that will dramatically improve the education, employment, and life outcomes for youth in communities of high youth distress. It highlights policy happenings in education, training and youth development that impact black male achievement. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-February-2013.htm Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-December-2012.htm This periodic update for the field is a part of CLASP's ongoing work to advance policy and practice that will dramatically improve the education, employment, and life outcomes for youth in communities of high youth distress. It highlights policy happenings in education, training and youth development that impact black male achievement. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Keeping-Connected-Youth-Newsletter-December-2012.htm Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /resources_and_publications/publication?id=1142&list=publications Our comments here draw upon CLASP's decade of policy work at the national, state, and local levels related to disconnected youth. We believe our comments in response to the U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth will serve to inform the development of the Performance Partnership Pilots as well as federal cross-agency policy development and funding decisions that can address our current challenges, develop the human capital needed to fuel our economy, and unleash the untapped potential and talent of the millions of young people who have fallen through the cracks. http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1142&list=publications Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/CLASPAgenda.ReconnectingYouth.Website.pdf CLASP's youth policy work aims to advance policy and practice that will dramatically improve the education, employment, and life outcomes for youth in communities of high youth distress. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASPAgenda.ReconnectingYouth.Website.pdf Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/Input-for-a-Strategic-Plan-for-Federal-Youth-Policy.CampaignforYouth.1.20.11.pdf The Campaign for Youth believe's a Strategic Plan for Federal Youth Policy must effectively support the outcomes of youth living in communities of high youth distress, youth of color, and those disconnected from the mainstream. Our comments and recommendations relate specifically to ensuring the needs of disconnected and high needs youth are adequately addressed. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Input-for-a-Strategic-Plan-for-Federal-Youth-Policy.CampaignforYouth.1.20.11.pdf Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/community-intervetion-strategy-excerpt.pdf Building postsecondary pathways to good jobs for low-income young men of color will require stretching the paradigms of our secondary, postsecondary, workforce, and adult education systems, as well as greater collaboration among these systems. Aligning systems and programming across funding streams, building partnerships, and creating new pathways are complex endeavors. But there are many innovative approaches that have shown promise and can be implemented and taken to scale. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/community-intervetion-strategy-excerpt.pdf Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/postsecondaryyouthofcolor.pdf Linda Harris, director of youth policy, and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, senior policy analyst, co-authored a chapter in the recently published book Changing Places: How Communities Will Improve the Health of Boys of Color. The book "draws attention to the urgent need--both economic and moral--to better understand the policy and community-based factors that serve as opportunities or barriers for young men and boys of color as they make critical life decisions." Ms. Harris and Ms. Duke-Benfield's chapter examines why it is essential to invest access to postsecondary education opportunities for young men of color. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/postsecondaryyouthofcolor.pdf Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/CFY.BudgetCommitteeLetter.FY2011.pdf We have an opportunity deficit in our nation. An estimated 5.2 million youth ages 16-24 are out of school and out of work. Without purposeful efforts to connect unemployed youth to jobs, paid work experience, education, and training to prepare them for openings in the new economy, those youth will most likely spend the better part of a decade with few opportunities to work, gain skills, or earn family sustaining wages. The Campaign for Youth urges Congress to increase opportunities for low-income and disconnected youth and young adults with limited labor market to access training, education supports, and good jobs that will help spur economic development in local communities across the nation. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CFY.BudgetCommitteeLetter.FY2011.pdf Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/ESEA-Recommendations2010.pdf American school districts are losing the battle to successfully educate a large number of the nation's youth. The reauthorization of ESEA is a prime opportunity to rethink how we can strengthen our commitment to reconnect with youth who have left school without receiving their diploma. These comments, submitted to the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, focus on how to amend ESEA to ensure that struggling students and high school dropouts have access to systems, support, and funding to remain in school or re-enter the educational system and attain a viable education that prepares them for post secondary opportunities and success in careers. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/ESEA-Recommendations2010.pdf Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/Follow-the-Money.pdf Several pieces of legislation have been proposed or passed that present opportunities to fund programs in communities to keep young people connected to school and recapture those who have fallen by the wayside. Most of these resources, however, are from competitive funding streams which will require communities to demonstrate innovative practice in planning and implementation. Communities need to be aware of these potential opportunities very early in the process in order to plan strategically and create partnerships to program at-scale and meet the needs of their disconnected youth. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Follow-the-Money.pdf Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/YO.ImplicationsforFederalPolicy.March2010.pdf For young people who live in communities plagued by high dropout rates, high youth unemployment rates, greater incidence of juvenile crime, violence, and gang activity, the prospects are bleak and there are few pathways to education, work and responsible citizenship for those disconnected from work and school. Fortunately, we have a roadmap for reaching out to, reconnecting and providing opportunities to disconnected youth. Agencies and organizations that serve youth who are disconnected from school and employment are increasingly working together using a systems approach that improves outcomes and reduces the gaps in services and supports that can occur in more fragmented systems. In the first half of last decade nearly 100,000 disadvantaged and disconnected youth nationwide were able to continue or complete their education and enter the workforce thanks to Youth Opportunity Programming. Unfortunately, funding was discontinued in 2005, and in the ensuing years federal funding for comprehensive youth programming continued to decline despite this being the most difficult economic environment since pre-World War II for the nation's youth. This paper outlines the key lessons of the Youth Opportunity Experience and building on existing strength, experience, and capacity describes its implications for current federal policy, including the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA). http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/YO.ImplicationsforFederalPolicy.March2010.pdf Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Baltimore.YO.pdf By implementing a service delivery philosophy that relied on highly skilled youth service professionals and neighborhood-based youth centers, YO! Baltimore not only became a hub for training and education but also for relationship and community building among residents young and old. YO! Sites were safe havens where caring adults gave young people the resources, skills and opportunities they needed to stay on track and to get back on track to achieve their goals. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Baltimore.YO.pdf Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.CIMC.YO.pdf In 2000, the California Indian Manpower Consortium, Inc. (CIMC) was awarded a $15.9 million Youth Opportunity Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The YO! CIMC Project was a collaborative effort of 23 Indian Tribes and CIMC aimed at providing comprehensive development activities and support for youth, ages 14- 21. The YO! CIMC experience afforded disadvantaged youth (many of whom attended schools in rural and isolated areas, which lacked qualified teachers or adequate curricula and serious health, social, and economic disparities) the opportunity to gain educational and occupational skills through Internships and Subsidized Employment, Life Skills Training, Job Readiness Training, and College SAT Prep programs. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.CIMC.YO.pdf Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Hartford.YO.pdf In 2000, Hartford was awarded a $28 million Youth Opportunity (YO) Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, YO! Hartford. This fact sheet outlines the lessons, legacy and impact YO had on community practice in the city of Hartford. The Hartford site served as an example of how collaborations and partnerships can increase educational options for under-credited, over-aged students and for those who have dropped out of school. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Hartford.YO.pdf Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Arkansas.YO.pdf In 2000, Rural Arkansas was awarded a $19.8 million Youth Opportunity Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. This fact sheet outlines the lessons, legacy and impact YO had on community practice in rural Southeast Arkansas. Much was accomplished in a relatively short period of time in this community. The YO Arkansas experience gave Phoenix Youth and Family Services (PYFS) a unique opportunity to address the needs of young people and help the community move toward its goal of reversing the economic decline of the area and the consequent departure of its young people. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CCRY.Arkansas.YO.pdf Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CampaignforYouth-JobCreation-December2009.pdf The number of unemployed youth and young adults in the United States is reaching record highs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly four million people under the age of 25 are considered officially unemployed. This paper outlines recommendations to ensure youth, especially those in high poverty communities, are a part of the nation's short and long-term economic recovery and job creation efforts. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CampaignforYouth-JobCreation-December2009.pdf Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/I3-comments.pdf The Investing in Innovation (I3) Fund offers local education agencies (LEAs) and nonprofit organizations an opportunity to rethink how they educate children and youth and to use school reform efforts as a foundational vehicle to work across sectors and explore new and innovative ways to support student learning from birth through postsecondary education. Our comments and recommendations relate specifically to ensuring the needs of struggling students and disconnected youth are adequately addressed. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/I3-comments.pdf Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/schoolimprovementgrants-comments-final.09.25.09.pdf Resources through School Improvement Grants offer our nation's most challenged school districts an opportunity to utilize best practices to rethink time and learning and provide our children and youth with a first-rate education experience. The rigorous interventions included in the School Improvement Grants Notice will not only raise the bar for the nation's lowest performing schools but it will provide state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) with the tools, strategies, and resources to effectively turn schools around and support our most disadvantaged students. Our comments and recommendations relate specifically to giving increased attention to struggling students and disconnected youth. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/schoolimprovementgrants-comments-final.09.25.09.pdf