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About the Coalition

The Next Generation Youth Work Coalition brings together indivduals and organizations dedicated to developing a strong, diverse after-school and youth development workforce that is stable, prepared, supported and committed to the well-being and empowerment of children and youth. We believe that this entails progress in at least five key areas: standards and competencies; professional development and training resources; learning delivery systems; career ladders and compensation guidelines; and research and evaluation systems. The primary role the Coalition is to inform and support ongoing discussions about the public policy, institutional, organizational and individual changes needed to create a stable, prepared, supported workforce. The Next Gen Coalition is supported by Cornerstones for Kids, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Lilly Endowment.

Click here for a description of the Coalition.
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About the Career Pathways Project

With support from Cornerstones for Kids and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition is conducting the Clear Policies for Career Pathways project. The Coalition is working with identified networks/coalitions in nine states and cities across the nation (Baltimore/Maryland, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York City, Vermont, San Diego and Long Beach) that are already pushing the envelope in addressing youth work workforce issues. Each team will identify key leverage points for change within their state or city and work toward building a career pathways system that: recognizes competence, rewards competence, requires competence, redefines competence, reflects the perspectives of all stakeholders, and relies on the use of public and private dollars and reaches all youth workers.

Click here for a description of the Career Pathways project.
Click here to review the components of a Career Pathways system.

News

A Concise Case for Investing in Youth Workers

In order to strengthen supports for youth workers, it is critical that new champions join the effort. We must not preach only to the choir! This two-page case statement is designed to make a clear, concise, convincing argument for investing in youth workers, not just youth programs. We hope it is useful as you reach out to new groups of stakeholders to engage in this work, including business, education, higher education and more.

Youth-Worker-Case-Statement-March2010.pdf
Strengthening the Youth Development/After-School Workforce

Despite major advancements in the field, staffing – everything from recruitment, retention, supervision, to performance – remains a major challenge. There is a need to reexamine currently held assumptions about what it will take to build a strong, stable, committed workforce. What incentives? What opportunities? What requirements? For whom? In what combination? This brief report by Nicole Yohalem, Karen Pittman and Sharon Lovick Edwards highlights lessons learned over the past six years by the Forum for Youth Investment, Cornerstones for Kids and the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition, with an eye toward implications for funders. We summarize what is known about youth workers, why investments in this workforce matter, and what funders (private and public) can do to spark and support these investments. The goal is to support discussions about how focused attention on workforce development can be a part of funders’ individual and collective efforts to strengthen and expand after-school and youth development programs and systems.

Find the document here: http://forumfyi.org/content/strengthening-youth-developmentafter-school-...

The Latest Next Gen Bulletin

Next Generation Bulletin 9 - September 2009

In this edition of the Next Gen Bulletin, we've got news on a newly established Leadership Council that serves as a "who's who" of organizations and individuals. Also, find out what's been happening in phase two of the Career Pathways Project, what Next Gen talked about at the 2009 National Afterschool Association conference, a coming program database and much more.