DCAYA's Advocacy Agenda for 2017

This week, we wanted to share our advocacy agenda, going into this year's Performance Oversight and Budget hearings. We've broken down our short term goals for the next year or so by our four main issue areas.

Youth Homelessness

One main goal is to scale up the capacity of our system to serve close to twice as many youth through developmentally appropriate and culturally competent services. To this end, we will be advocating for fully funding the first year objectives in Youth Strategic Plan, an investment of $5.7 million. Not limited to beds and transitional housing, this investment also includes building support for long term prevention and intervention strategies.

Youth Voice: Make the Wilson Building Work for You(th)

This week, we're sharing the perspective of Henry Eisler, a youth participant in Mikva Challenge DC who is spending his summer writing a blog to elevate the voices of DC youth and inspire them to play an active role in the District's political system. We thank Henry and Mikva Challenge DC for their contribution to this blog!

There is a building on Pennsylvania Avenue that influences the life of every young person living in Washington, DC every day. In this building, elected officials govern, pass legislation, and make monumental decisions that determine the way the entire city functions. This building, despite what you may have been thinking, is not the White House; this is the John A. Wilson building, home to the City Council of the District of Columbia. This City Council is a group of accomplished men and women who craft and pass the laws and regulations that determine the manner in which the city operates and its residents may act. 

Introduction to the Work of the Council

As the DC City Council quickly works to finalize a budget for the new term (Fall 2016), their focus is beginning to shift towards an improved education platform that will have positive effects on young people across the city. The Council’s Committee on Education, chaired by Councilman David Grosso, has been increasingly pushing the addition of education reforms to the 2017 budget deal. These reforms primarily aim to expand school reading and library projects, support nutritional health and on-campus medical aid programs, and lower rates of truancy in schools throughout the District.

DCAYA's Budget Updates: Workforce Development & Disconnected Youth!

While the final vote on the FY17 budget will occur on May 31^st at 10am (watch here: http://dccouncil.us/videos), the Council’s decisions are all but finalized.

Today we’d like to reflect on the work of our members and partners throughout this year’s advocacy season and provide an update on the successes for youth, families, and children within the FY17 budget. This week’s is the first of two parts, focusing on Youth Workforce Development and Disconnected Youth. 

Youth Workforce Development

Maintenance of In-School Youth Program

This spring, DCAYA advocated for the continuation of the In-School Youth Program with available federal funds-- and supplemental local funds if necessary. Under WIOA, federal expenditures for in school programs will be reduced to a maximum of 25% of the District’s total federal allocation of $2.3 million annually. Because the District has significantly underspent federal funds in the last few years, the In-School Youth Program appears safe in FY17. DC’s Draft WIOA State Plan includes a proposed strategy to blend the District’s reduced in school allocation with funding that flows through the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to make all in school youth programs accessible to youth with disabilities. We will continue to advocate for capacity building support within the program’s competitively selected providers to ensure that they have the training necessary to provide quality programming to youth with disabilities. We’d like to thank our members and partners from LAYC, Sasha Bruce, DCFPI and the Young Women’s Project for attending the WIOA State Plan Public Engagement Session to elevate this priority and for testifying at DOES’s budget oversight hearing.

SYEP Expansion and Evaluation

Full Report Available Here

While the FY17 budget includes $4.8M to fully fund the participation of 12,000 youth 14-21 and 1,000 youth 22-24, DCAYA and our partners were successful in ensuring that the continuation of this expansion be tied to the consistent assessment and evaluation of its quality. Earlier this spring, the DC Council added an amendment to Mayor Bower’s Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Expansion Amendment Act of 2016. The amendment limits the expansion of SYEP to the summers of 2016 and 2017 in order to allow Council adequate time to review and assess data regarding the program's expansion during 2015 while working with the Executive to formulate a permanent program that appropriately meets the needs of the targeted populations, including disconnected youth. Additionally, the DC Auditor’s report on SYEP concluded that to meet legislated program requirements moving forward, DOES will have to contract with an external expert to conduct a third-party, program quality evaluation of the program annually. Big thanks are due to Councilmember Silverman and her staff, Councilmembers Nadeau and Allen for promoting the quality and assessment of SYEP, and to DOES’s Office of Youth Programs for working to provide the best possible program to over 13,000 District youth every summer.

Disconnected Youth

Expansion of Kids Ride Free through Age 24

This year, DCAYA advocated for an additional investment of $950,000 to expand the age eligibility of Kids Ride Free through age 24 in order to meet the transportation needs of over 700 youth engaged in alternative and adult education placements. Building on the evidence elevated by Raise DC’s Disconnected Youth Change Network (DYCN), DCAYA designed a survey of re-engaging youth this winter and circulated it through DYCN’s membership. Our findings provided a basis for a cost estimate of our budget ask and highlighted the importance of funding transportation supports to maximize the District’s investments in nontraditional students.

During budget advocacy, DCAYA also supported the ask of the DC Adult and Family Literacy Coalition (DC AFLC) to extend the availability of subsidized tokens to adult education providers to help offset the cost of transportation for their students. While neither of these asks were able to be funded in the FY17 budget, our advocacy did result in the addition of language in the Budget Support Act requiring the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) to fully assess the transportation needs of the District’s adult and alternative education population by October 1, 2016. Even though our budget requests were not granted by Council this year, we mounted a strong campaign and are certain that our champions on the Council will find the funding next year.

This year’s effort was made possible by the work of Raise DC’S Disconnected Youth Change Network in vetting and circulating our transportation survey, our partners at DC AFLC and Academy of Hope for supporting our ask, the Council’s Budget Office and the staff of the Committees on Education and Transportation & the Environment for working to identify the needed funding, the DME for initiating a Transportation Taskforce earlier this year, and to Councilmember Silverman for including our ask on the Committee of the Whole’s final ‘budget wishlist’.

Maintain Funding for SLED

Throughout the FY17 budget season, the Mayor’s $1.1M proposed investment to keep SLED stable and fully staffed and $11.9M to develop the capacity of the system in capital funds were maintained. SLED continues to play an invaluable role in driving the District’s education system decisions, and also serves as a starting point for the development of a similar approach within the workforce development sector. Many thanks are due to the Mayor, DME Niles, and Superintendent Kang for prioritizing the maintenance of SLED in the Mayor’s proposed budget, and to the Committee on Education for ensuring the protection of these funds through the budget process. We’d also like to thank our partners at Raise DC for spearheading important and insightful educational research that brings the fruit of SLED to bear.

That’s all for now folks! Check back next week for more budget updates on Expanding Learning and Youth Homelessness.

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

What is the Path Forward for Supporting Afterschool and Summer Programs for Youth?

In case you missed it, Senior Policy Analyst Joseph Gavrilovich was a guest blogger for the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) earlier this week:

The DC Council should act this budget season to ensure resources will be available for afterschool and summer programs for low-income students, following the recent news that the DC Trust will be dissolved due to financial mismanagement and other problems. For over a decade, the Trust has served to distribute funds from DC government for these important programs run by community-based organizations. 

The collapse of the Trust raises a question that affects the lives of thousands of DC kids: Without the DC Trust, what is the path forward for funding youth development in the District? For the coming year, a short-term solution makes sense. A group of youth-serving organizations recommends allowing a local foundation to allocate the $4.9 million in the Mayor’s fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget for community-based afterschool and summer programming. This will give the Mayor and DC Council a year to work with community stakeholders to develop a permanent solution.

To read the rest of his blog, please visit DCFPI's site. 

Help Us #KeepDYOnTrack this Advocacy Season!

This week, we're kicking off our series on DCAYA's big budget asks for FY17. Expanding transportation subsidies for older students was not included in Mayor Bowser's proposed budget-- but we are prepared to keep advocating for our youth who have re-engaged in education! Earlier this year, DCAYA worked with our partners at Raise DC's Disconnected Youth Change Network (DYCN) to conduct a youth survey on transportation. Below you'll find the advocacy resources we identified. 

You can find the full report of our findings here: Issue Briefing on the Transportation Needs of Re-engaging Youth.

THE ASK: An additional investment of $950,000 will ensure that youth (ages 22-24) who have overcome multiple barriers to re-engage in their education at a Local Education Agency (LEA) are able to attend school without the persistent worry of how they will afford to get there. This estimate is based on the average weekly cost of transportation that students reported to DCAYA via the DYCN Youth Transportation Survey ($30/ week on average) and OSSE’s reported number of youth aged 22-24 enrolled in DC schools (LEAs) in 2015 (721).

TALKING POINTS:

No District-wide support for the transportation needs of students 22+

·   No youth 22 or older has access to any citywide transportation aids. The District's Student Transit Subsidy Program (includes Kids Ride Free and subsidized passes) is available to youth ages 5-21.

Absence of transportation support significantly affects 22-24 year old students

·        Transportation is a significant expense for District youth. 54% of survey respondents 22-24 reported spending over $30 a week or $120 a month travelling to and from their programs.

·         Despite the high cost of transportation, youth are prioritizing their education. The majority of older youth surveyed reported spending 45% or more of their weekly income getting to and from their educational programs.

 ·         Transportation costs are high for all youth, but those living east of the river are the hardest hit. 83% of all youth 22-24 reported spending approximately one-fifth or more of their weekly income getting to and from their programs; notably 55% of these youth live in Wards 5, 7, and 8.

Impact of DC’s second-chance system investments relies on access to affordable transportation

·     When transportation costs are so high, showing up to class is half the battle for re-engaging youth. 21% of older youth reported missing class 3 or more times a month due to insufficient transportation funds. Most programs are less than 40 weeks long, so youth are missing 13% of their program’s total class time because they cannot afford to get there.

·     The loss of economic productivity and social costs associated with disconnected youth are profound. The roughly 7,500 currently disconnected students[1] in DC cost taxpayers (in lost earnings) roughly $13,900 each annually, for a total of $104 million every year. When you add in the annual per-student social cost (subsidized health care, income assistance, higher rates of criminal justice involvement) of $37,450 associated with disconnection, that’s an additional $281 million a year.[2]

THE NEXT STEPS:

      1. Testify and elevate youth narrative: Council needs to hear from you and your youth about the ways transportation costs affect student persistence and success. Over the next several weeks, we ask that you prepare testimony and work with your youth to provide examples of the need for expanded transportation support for youth 16-24. 

District Department of Transportation (DDOT)
Budget Hearing: Friday, April 8, 2016 at 11 am in Room 500

To testify, contact Aukima Benjamin, abenjamin@dccouncil.us or 202-724-8062

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME)
Budget Hearing: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 10 am in Room 120

Sign up here or call 202-724-8061

Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)

Budget Hearing: Monday, April 18, 2016 at 10 am in Room 412

Sign up here or call 202-724-8061

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)

Budget Hearing: Monday, April 25, 2016 at 10 am in Room 412

To testify, contact Sarina Loy, sloy@dccouncil.us or 202-724-8058

2. Contact councilmembers to elevate ask & youth narrative

COUNCILMEMBER	AGENCY OVERSIGHT (HEARING DATE)	COMMITTEES	EMAIL	TWITTER
Mary Cheh*	DDOT (4/8)	Transportation & Environment (Chairperson)	mcheh@dccouncil.us	@marycheh
Jack Evans*	DDOT (4/8) WMATA (4/25)	Transportation & Environment Finance & Revenue (Chairperson)	jevans@dccouncil.us	@JackEvansWard2
Brandon Todd*	DDOT (4/8) DME (4/13)	Transportation & Environment  Education	btodd@dccouncil.us	@CMBrandonTodd
Kenyan McDuffie*	DDOT (4/8) WMATA (4/25)	Transportation & Environment  Finance & Revenue	kmcduffie@dccouncil.us	@CM_McDuffie
Charles Allen*	DDOT (4/8) DME (4/13)	Transportation & Environment Education	callen@dccouncil.us	@CharlesAllenW6
David Grosso*	DME (4/13) WMATA (4/25)	Education (Chairperson)  Finance & Revenue	dgrosso@dccouncil.us	@cmdgrosso
Vincent Orange	WMATA (4/25)	Finance & Revenue	vorange@dccouncil.us	@VOrangeDC
Elissa Silverman	WMATA (4/25)	Finance & Revenue	esilverman@dccouncil.us	@tweetelissa
Yvette Alexander	DME (4/13)	Education	yalexander@dccouncil.us	@CMYMA
Anita Bonds	DME (4/13)	Education	abonds@dccouncil.us	@AnitaBondsDC

*Indicates high influence for our budget ask

3. Use Sample Tweets (.@Councilmember)

(.@Councilmember) Please fund Kids Ride Free expansion for youth 22-24 to help #KeepDYOnTrack. #DCFY17

(.@Councilmember) Surveyed youth 22-24 lack transportation supports, over half spending 45% of income getting to class #KeepDYOnTrack #DCFY17

(.@Councilmember) 21% of surveyed youth 22-24 miss 3+ days of class/month bc they can’t afford transportation #KeepDYOnTrack #DCFY17

(.@Councilmember) Showing up is half the battle: students 22-24 are struggling to afford their trip to class #KeepDYOnTrack. #DCFY17

That's all for now! We hope to see you at the Wilson Building this advocacy season!

Amy Dudas is the disconnected youth and workforce development policy analyst at DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. If you have any questions about today's blog, or would like more information on our transportation advocacy please contact her at amy@dc-aya.org.

---

[1] OSSE. (2014) “Bridging LEAs to Resources for Enhanced Student Outcomes” Online at: http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE_T1S3_FINAL%20PRESENTATION_%20110714_YDA.pdf

[2] Belfield, Levin, & Rosen (2012). The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth. Civic Enterprises. Online at:

http://www.civicenterprises.net/MediaLibrary/Docs/econ_value_opportunity_youth.pdf.

Budget Breakdown: What Mayor Gray's Proposed Budget Means for Children and Youth

As you likely heard, Mayor Gray released the proposed DC Budget for 2015 last Thursday. The multi-billion dollar budget proposal is now before Council where, through a series of upcoming public hearings and advocacy meetings, it will be debated and tweaked by Council Committees before it goes to a final vote.

To inform our budget asks for 2015, DCAYA spent the last few days reading through each agency budget to identify major changes. We found a few pockets of great investments, and a few areas that will need loud community voices in the coming weeks. Here's what we've found so far:

Education: Please note the DCPS budget format was dramatically overhauled this year and it will take us a bit more time to work though. In the meantime, here are a few broad takeaways.

DC Public Schools and Public Charter Schools  

• $112,000,000 in new funding for DC Public Schools (DCPS) and the District’s public charter schools (PCS), including $60,000,000 million in funding targeted to at risk students.
• A $409,000,000 investment for ongoing citywide school modernization.
• $880,000 to add three additional career academies in IT, engineering, and hospitality.
• A major increase in the number of middle school counselors, budget mark pending.

Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE):

• Due to a decrease in a number of federal grants, OSSE’s overall budget will be reduced by $25,697,297. This will impact a number of OSSE’s offices and programs. DCAYA is still waiting for more information on these cuts.  
• Funding to services designed to promote success in post secondary education including DC TAG, AP Test Fee Funding the College Access Challenge Grant went up by $9,788,000.

DCAYA Ask: Given the overall complexity of the Education Budget, we are continuing to work through our final asks for this year. We’ll be sure to post additional information here and on our website as soon as possible. In the meantime, DC Appleseed just released a great report and recommendations on the need for robust investments in Adult Basic Education, and as always, our friends at DCFPI have a number of great blogs up that look at the Mayor’s entire budget.

Youth Homelessness and Safety Net Services:

• Although we’re still waiting to hear final numbers on supports for Homeless and unaccompanied youth and young parents; last year’s budget for this population was $6,022,691. Given the investments made by the LGBTQ Housing Program we would anticipate this number to rise by close to $400,000 this year. We’ll update you as we learn more.
• The overall budget for homeless families shows a decrease. While the budget does include a $1,000,000 increase to both emergency rental assistance and rapid re-housing, this investment will not cover the loss of nearly $600,000 in federal funding traditionally used to provide critical safety net services for homeless families. 
• Funding to mental health services for children and youth through the Department of Behavioral Health also saw a massive increase of $23,689,000.
• The DC Kids Ride Free Program was increased by $2,000,000.

DCAYA Ask: With 48% of homeless families headed by a parent aged 24 years and younger, our city faced a mounting crisis this winter. While we applaud the commitment of this Mayor to invest in truly affordable housing and the 500 Families in 100 days initiative, we remain committed to ensuring young heads of household and unaccompanied youth receive the level of support they need to succeed long term. We must remember that many of these young parents and individuals are simply not prepared financially or emotionally to live alone. We will continue to advocate for the adoption of our $10,000,000 investment in prevention, reunification and long-term supports for this vulnerable population.

Expanded Learning and Youth Development:

• Despite early indications that the Trust’s budget could see an increase in the Mayor’s proposed budget, funding remained flat at $3,000,000.

DCAYA Ask: We stand by our initial recommendation that the Children Youth Investment Trust Corporation should be funded at $8,000,000. This is the funding level necessary to maintain its current grant making, capacity building and agency coordination efforts.

Youth Workforce:

• Funding to the DOES Summer Youth Employment Program increased by $634,000.
• Unfortunately, year round programming provided by DOES was cut by $1,943,000 due to a loss in federal funding that was not replaced with local dollars.
• The end of a contract between OSSE and DOES has removed $4,153,000 in Post-Secondary Education and Workforce Readiness funding from the OSSE budget. The impact of this cut is somewhat unknown at this time, with more information to follow.
• On a brighter note though, although this isn’t possible to find in the budget document, the Mayor’s Office Reported making an additional $2,500,000 investment in workforce programming at the Community College of the District of Columbia.

DCAYA Ask: While the investment in the community college is fantastic, the failure to invest local funds into the year round youth workforce programming is troubling. DCAYA will push for stable funding for this program and also recommends that the increase in SYEP be transferred to the year round program.

Disconnected Youth:

• The Deputy Mayor for Education’s budget does include $372,000 to support a city-wide Re-Engagement Center (REC) for Disconnected Youth.

DCAYA Ask: This budget is insufficient to support a fully functioning REC. The DCAYA’s analysis recommended $689,000 in public funding (this relies on at minimum $115,000of in-kind donations from various government agencies and foundations). We are continuing to push for the full investment recognizing that as proposed, the Mayor’s budget would hire three staff and support almost no additional resources for a REC.  In addition, we continue to push for $1,500,000 to support additional capacity in our alternative education programs. Without more seats, there will be very few educational programs for youth to reconnect to. Because funding in DCPS' budget is still unclear, progress in this area is uncertain. We'll continue to update you.


DC Alliance of Youth Advocates envisions a community where no youth is considered at-risk and where all are respected as valued members of society. Facilitating robust community input on the DC Budget to ensure smart, stable funding that positively impacts DC youth is a major part of our work. Please check our website calendar for opportunities to have your voice heard in the upcoming DC Council Budget Hearings 

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.