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Coalition Update
The work of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition continues! Four learning groups have been working over the past several months to advance the Coalition's agenda developed in November 2006 and to identify key actions that could guide and provide continuity to those working at the local, state or national level on workforce issues. The learning groups are focused on: policy; external communications/strategic framing; higher education and international lessons. We anticipate several projects will emerge from the learning groups in early 2008.
The Career Pathways Project is focused on advancing system building and policy change. Next Gen is compiling promising practices emerging from this effort to build and strengthen career pathways in nine sites: Illinois, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Minnesota, Vermont, Baltimore, San Diego, Long Beach and New York City. Next Gen is convening the sites in February to learn from one another and support their efforts, with a focus on compensation and retention.
Read on for promising practices, recent events, new resources, reflections from a Bay Area youth Worker, and lessons from other fields. |
 Promising Practices Spotlight
San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families
In February 2007, San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), focused exclusively on ensuring that young people ages 0 to 17 become healthy, productive and valued community members - released their 2007-2010 Request for Proposals (RFP). Building on lessons from Next Gen, the RFP reflected a new focus on system-wide changes and dedicated funds for the youth work field.
DCYF has made significant policy shifts designed to address the needs of youth workers and has set forth a vision that supports the collective voice of youth workers, collaborates with peer networks and membership organizations, and brings the youth work issue to the forefront of discussions about quality programming. The department is particularly excited about a new partnership between the city's technical assistance intermediaries and a local peer network to develop an online database of youth workers and pilot a comprehensive training and mentorship series. DCYF has also added workforce development to its citywide requirements for all agencies funded to deliver out-of-school time programs and will provide technical assistance and training to build the capacity of these organizations to support their youth workers.
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New Resources
The Cornerstones for Kids (C4K) Workforce Planning Portal
Cornerstones For Kids launched a new workforce planning website in mid-December. Part of the C4K web site, the portal is a gateway to materials and tools specifically designed to assist individuals and organizations in answering quick workforce-related questions and examining larger, longer-term workforce concerns. It is easy to use and relevant for organizations regardless of size, mission or specialty in the public, private or non-profit sectors. The portal emerged from C4K's work assessing the state of the human services workforce, where the need for a comprehensive set of resources on workforce issues became apparent. See www.cornerstones4kids.org.
Next Gen Online Resources Guide
This annotated bibliography includes key reports, articles and policy briefs published over the last four years related to worfoces issues in the youth development/after-school fields. Feel free to use this as a handout at upcoming meetings or events.To view the guide, go to http://nextgencoalition.org/files/NextGenAnnotatedResourceGuide.pdf
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Recent Events
Investing in Bay Area Youth Workers
In November, 2007 the Community Network for Youth Development, with support from partner agencies, held a day-long dialogue in the Bay Area for over three hundred youth workers, funders, policy makers, intermediaries, researchers and others entitled Building a Regional Workforce Development System for Youth Workers was held in the Bay Area. The convening built on existing local efforts and used the Next Gen workforce development framework. Ellen Gannett, NIOST; Mo Barbosa, Medical Foundation and Pam Garza, Next Gen all supported the planning and implementation of the event. Work is already underway to move the recommendations to action. For more information, go to www.cnyd.org.
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families Audio Conference
A September, 2007 audio-conference sponsored by the Grantmakers for Children Youth and Families explored the work of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition and in particular, recent research about the workforce. Featuring Nicole Yohalem of the Forum for Youth Investment and Pam Garza of the National 4-H Council, the call highlighted research about front-line youth workers, their current employment situations, and what might help strengthen the workforce. Promising practices that are emerging around the country for creating a stable, prepared, and supported youth workforce were shared. For more information, go to: http://www.gcyf.org/programs/programs_show.htm?doc_id=507131.
YMCA Expo
In October 2007, Ellen Gannett and Pam Garza presented to YMCA staff from across the country about the front-line youth worker study and promising practices for strengthening the workforce. The discussions deepened work being done by YMCA national on recruiting, developing and retaining youth workers and expanded the topic to ensure that compensation and policy issues were identified as crucial areas for action.
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Youth Worker Perspectives
My name is Xiomara Galvan and I am a 20 year old wife and mother. I got involved in my community because I got incarcerated. My case manager was connected with Youthline that was hiring for an outreach worker. Ruth, at Youthline was interested in me because needed a Hispanic female that spoke Spanish and was from Mission District. I was hired in January 2003, and now I'm a Senior Supervisor and hope to be the coordinator one day.
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| Lessons from Other Fields
Roots of Decline: How Government Policy Has De-Educated Teachers of Young Children
The paper is based on a
review of literature and interviews with key informants in four states (California, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin)
and examines the demographic and public policy context for early childhood
education. As researchers and policy
analysts who have devoted more than 20 years to studying the early care and
education workforce, the authors try to tease apart why this workforce sector
remains in such a precarious and untenable position, given its enormous value
in the daily lives of young children and their families. To view the paper, visit
http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/cscce/pdf/roots_decline06.pdf.
Promises & Pitfalls of Alternative Teacher Compensation Approaches
Merit pay systems for teachers, although currently popular with policy makers, are no panacea, a new policy brief from the Education Policy Research Unit and the Education and the Public Interest Center concludes. In the brief, Debbi C. Harris explores three main types of teacher compensation systems used in the United States. They include the uniform salary schedule used in most districts and two types of merit pay systems: performance-based and outcome-based. She notes that there are advantages to each approach but that there are adverse, often unintended, consequences to each system as well. To view the brief, visit:
http://epsl.asu.edu/epru/documents/EPSL-0704-231-EPRU.pdf.
Why Do Teachers Quit?
A new study from the Center for Teacher Quality at California State University boldly states that bureaucracy is the single biggest reason why teachers stop teaching, even more important than pay. The researchers surveyed more than 1,900 current and former teachers in an effort to understand why 18,000 California teachers quit every year. To view the study, visit: http://www.calstate.edu/teacherquality/documents/possible_dream_exec.pdf.
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Nicole Yohalem and Pam Garza
Next Generation Youth Work Coalition
For more information on Next Gen, contact:
Nicole Yohalem at nicole@forumfyi.org.
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