The Principles of Positive Youth Development Re-Cap

Last Friday, DCAYA hosted a special panel discussion on the principles of positive youth development (PYD) and how an outcomes framework like PYD can help facilitate better programming at local non-profits. This event was part of a series of events sponsored by the Horning Family Fund meant to help child and youth serving organizations from Wards 7 and 8 better align their programming with non-profits from across the city.

Our guest panel, which was moderated by DCAYA's Executive Director Maggie Riden,was comprised of:

Cara Fuller, Director of Workforce Development, Sasha Bruce Youthwork

Peter Guttmacher, Director of Programming and Curricula Development at the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation

and Selvon Waldron, Director of Development at Life Pieces to Masterpieces.

The panelists talked about the many creative ways they integrate the 12 Developmental Outcomes of PYD into their respective organization's missions and day-to-day programming. For Sasha Bruce's Youth Build Program, the outcomes around belonging/membership, responsibility/autonomy and employability were especially important because of their focus on on older and out-of-school youth, while for programs like LP2M all of the outcomes had to be addressed and implemented in different ways because of the focus on serving both younger children as well as teenagers. What a lot of providers found interesting was the commonality of PYD and how it could be used across different program areas to yield positive outcomes. For instance, some people found it shocking that traditional out-of-school time providers would have similar processes to workforce development programs or that organizations that provided services to homeless young people would track similar measures as interim outcomes.

Putting their funding hats on, Peter and Selvon also talked at length about how funding entities require the types of outcomes that a process like PYD facilitates and how in this time of economic uncertainty outcomes are the prime driver of funding decisions. Selvon also talked about how once an organization has an established system in place, tracking outcomes becomes second nature.

Overall we had a great group of providers in the room which lead to a great discussion with our panel and a lot of new interest around how to use positive youth development across sectors like housing, foster care and even in traditional educational options like schools which is always encouraging to see. The last of our events targeting providers and youth from Wards 7 and 8 will be our third annual Youth-Advocacy Day which will be held April 27th from 3:00pm-5:00pm in the John A. Wilson Building! Stay tuned for details!

For more information on DCAYA's East of the River Outreach Project, please contact Anne Abbott (anne@dc-aya.org). Special thanks to Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative for loaning us their space and to all of the providers from Wards 7 and 8 who came out to learn more about PYD including:

Live It, Learn It

Lydia's House

Jobs Have Priority

Teens Run DC

FAN

Blessed Haven

Urban Alliance

Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative

Southwest Community Development Corporation

Life Pieces to Masterpieces

Homeless Children's Playtime Project

Fair Chance

City Year

and Project Create

A Post from Our (not so) New Executive Director, Maggie Riden!

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the blog, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has reached out over the course of this week as I have stepped into my new role as Executive Director. The outpouring of excitement, the emails of congratulations and the many offers of support have been incredible- and maybe more importantly, this level of community response really illustrates the level of engagement, energy and connectivity of the DC youth serving community – and we’re going to need to tap into all of those assets as we dig into budget season.

We all know that understanding and taking part in the budget process is critical, and it couldn’t be more so given the level of economic insecurity and scarcity we’ve experienced in the last few years. In the last two years we’ve seen proposed budgets come from the Mayor’s office that decrease funding for many of the programs and services that we know positively affect children and youth here in the District and this year is no different. Even before the FY'13 budget was released, we had been hearing for weeks about the anticipated funding gap of $172 million- and lingering uncertainty on where cuts would be made, or revenue found.

For those of us that focus on the health and wellbeing of children, youth and families, a few elements of Mayor Gray’s FY'13 Budget should be concerning. Here are a few of the critical elements:

Out- of- School Time Programming for Younger Youth Took a Plunge: Services to children and youth during non-school hours and the summer will be drastically reduced in 2013. The Trust was maintained at a budget mark of $3 million and the DCPS Office of Out of School Time Programs was cut by $5.7 million. One of the few positives in this budget was an increase of $1.3 million for year round youth employment programming

Services to Disconnected and At- Risk Youth Took a Hit: While the budget does include a 2% increase in per-pupil funding, many of the services and supports designed to support non-traditional learners or at- risk children and youth were reduced. For example the alternative education budget was reduced by $1.5 million; the DCPS Office of Youth Engagement, by $1.3 million, DCPS Student Support Services (including school based social and psychological services) was cut by $1.3 million, the DPR Roving Leaders Program was cut by $2.6 million. Again we did see an increase of about $1 million at DOES for their year-round youth initiatives.

Critical Safety Net Services Remain Under Funded: An array of other services and supports including TANF and the DC Health Care Alliance received additional cuts for FY13, while others including the Homeless Services Continuum remain critically underfunded in a few key areas.

There are no easy ways to balance a budget that has faced this level of shortfall over the last few years- no one can deny that- and if we knew that the reductions listed above addressed existing inefficiencies or reflected a targeted approach to changing the conditions that keep so many of our neighbors from realizing their full potential- rather than reductions to programs and services -that would be laudable. Unfortunately, no one at the Wilson Building, or in the respective agencies are giving those assurances. That said, DCAYA hopes you will join us over the next few weeks in expressing to Council and the Mayor that truly achieving One City- requires a firm and consistent investment in children, youth and families.

Information on Agency Budgets is available on: budget.dc.gov

For more information on the DC Budget Process check out the DC Fiscal Policy Institute's handy dandy Budget 101 Toolkit.

Questions about DCAYA, our budget advocacy and this blog post can be forwarded to Maggie Riden, DCAYA Executive Director. Fortunately, her email has not changed with her job title, you can still contact her via maggie@dc-aya.org.

April Showers Bring Many Opportunities

As spring approaches and DC receives its few months of bearable weather before an always to be expected thick and swampy humid summer, the cherry blossoms begin to bloom and DC becomes a hub for international tourism.

Besides the enormous influx of tourist making metro rush hour even more difficult, spring is a time for the 2013 FY budget season. And amongst the testimonies and hearings it becomes incredibly easy to overlook the vast amount of resources the District has to offer during the spring. And while it’s important to be an active member of local politics, it’s equally important that one takes a step back to examine and appreciate the novelties that make the District what it is.

The season offers opportunities for the District’s youth to engage and participate in many constructive activities; many of these being free! Over the next few months, the District will offer a variety of events ranging from the Cherry Blossom Festival to the DC Jazz festival. Many of the events focus on a cultural or historical aspect of DC and many use these features to demonstrate DC’s relationship to the rest of the world. You can find a list of the upcoming events at:

http://dc.about.com/cs/familyactivities/a/CherryBlossom.htm

In addition, the One City Summer team has worked diligently throughout the Winter to coordinate a variety of camps, summer employment opportunities and special events designed to keep children and youth engaged, excited, healthy and safe. As part of this the District will be re-launching a new and improved One City Summer Website to share events and opportunities in real time (and yes, CBOs will be able to post and highlight what they’re doing too). At the same time youth working with DC Library will be releasing the youth friendly version- youth202.com to make sure that young people have a way to stay connected and hear about the events that will interest them. at the end of this month.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the launch of these websites, but in the meantime, you can find more information about summer activities and programs by checking out the Department of Parks and Recreations spring-summer schedule of youth events.

http://dpr.dc.gov/DC/DPR/Programs+and+Services/Register+for+Programs/2012+Spring-Summer+Fun+Guide

DCAYA is also in the process of organizing a youth advocacy day dedicated to positive youth development. Youth Advocacy Day will offer the district’s young people an opportunity to learn about the legislative process in the District, tour the Wilson Building, and connect with their elected officials. The specifics for the event are still being determined but it will take place on Aril 27^th at time that does not conflict with the DC school schedule.

It will be interesting to see how the 2013 FY budget compares with the current budget and as someone who is new to the advocacy world, I hope its better. It’s obvious that although the upcoming spring events won’t begin to touch the deficit of positive youth development programs in the District, they do offer something. And in a city that is all too familiar with doing very much with very little, the upcoming spring offers another opportunity to do so.

A Post from Korey Johnson, Outreach Assistant

With performance oversight hearing season going on it's been a while since we've posted anything on our blog! This week's post is by DCAYA's Outreach Assistant Korey Johnson who is new to advocacy work in DC.

Last week, DCAYA hosted a community breakfast for community based organizations (CBOS) that serve children and youth in Wards 7 and 8.This event was one of my first experiences with community providers from east of the river and it was brilliant seeing organizations meet each other and DCAYA for the first time. It was tremendously humbling to experience the utmost dedication and passion that community providers from east of the river have for the District’s children and youth. Staff from the over 20 organizations in attendance not only had a sympathetic understanding of the challenges the young people of Wards 7 and 8 experience while navigating the transition to adulthood but also the different obstacles young people face in general.

Prior to coming on at DCAYA, I knew that Wards 7 and 8 suffered from a lack of economic development and that they were reknowned as one of the more dangerous areas of the city. What I didn’t realize was all the ways that social conditions like crime and unemployment had the capacity to negatively affect young people. A large proportion of the youth in these communities deal with child abuse and neglect, homelessness, and unemployment; these issues typically merge and create new obstacles that often produce worse circumstances. Consequentially, youth serving organizations that operate east of the river have a full plate when it comes to trying to lessen the burdens of children and youth.

After our initial meet and greet at last Friday’s breakfast we had a productive discussion about the central issues these organizations face when working with DC’s youth. Some of the most pressing issues included:

• · Lack of funding and complicated funding silos
• · Confusion over where to find best practices and pertinent new research
• · Lack of provider mobilization and collaboration
• · Confusion over how to communicate with the philanthropic community

Interestingly, none of the organizations had a shortage of program ideas or solution regarding their respective areas of expertise. Each CBO had clear plans of how they could best involve themselves in the lives of District youth and assist young people in becoming healthy and productive adults. Instead, the issues that were identified as a major challenges for CBOs revolved around funding, sustainability and a lack of connectivity with each other as well as community resources.

DCAYA started its outreach east of the river with the goal of hosting multiple convenings that focused on the self-identified issues that these providers face. Using the feedback received at our first event, we’re actively working on setting up another opportunity for organizations from Wards 7 and 8 to better network and collaborate as well as learn a bit more about some of the best practices going on in children’s and youth programming.

If staff from your organization would like to attend the upcoming events or would like more information about DCAYA’s outreach efforts please contact me via email (Korey@ DC-AYA.org).

Advocates for Justice and Education Wants YOUR Feedback on Informal School Exclusion

Our partners over at Advocates for Justice and Education (AJE) have come up with an "Informal School Exclusion Survey" for parents from both DCPS and DCPCS. You can access the survey and get more information on our website.

Please feel free to circulate the survey to parents from your programs!