Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Budget Advocacy Overview Available

Among the advocacy work that DCAYA is charged with, is the work to provide recommendations and forward solutions to District government on areas that impact the city’s youth, particularly around the issues of Youth Homelessness, Youth Employment and Out-of-School Time Programming. This budget season DCAYA members provided testimony in the council hearings conducted to provide oversight of the aforementioned areas. Some factors that impacted our testimony included the District’s first major budget shortfall since FY 2003 of about $800 million and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which was established to provide a stimulus to the U.S. economy in the wake of the national economic downturn. Given these extreme budgetary factors, DCAYA maintained that city leaders should work to make youth a priority in the FY 2010 budget.

Read the entire Budget Advocacy Overview here.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Most-Detailed Statistical Scan of D.C. Youth is Presented in "On the Road to Adulthood"

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 22, 2009 -- From health and housing to school achievement and employment, a new report from the Urban Institute provides the most comprehensive source of data on the state of teenagers and young adults in the District of Columbia. “On the Road to Adulthood,” an 82-page compendium and analysis produced in collaboration with the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA) and its member organizations, uses nearly 100 indicators of well-being to detail the circumstances of people age 12 to 24. In addition to explaining the diverse challenges facing young people in the District, the report examines a range of community responses and profiles 14 nonprofits serving youth.
Read the rest of the press release here.