Sustaining Systemic Approaches to Regaging
Disconnected Youth
Portland, OR
In collaboration with National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education and Families
An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip - October 5-7, 2008
The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), working with the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute), planned a series of workshops and field trips to help local leaders learn more about reaching struggling students and out-of-school youth and expanding options and alternatives for high school-aged young people. This project, funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, supports the YEF Institute’s work engaging municipal leaders in building cross-system collaborations by providing hands-on professional development activities to mayors and superintendents, their staffs, and other local leaders engaged in efforts to reach young people who have dropped out of school, are out of work, or have been involved in the juvenile justice or foster care systems. This project offers local leaders an opportunity to participate in strategically designed and intensive workshops and field trips during which participants engage in substantive policy discussions with their counterparts in other cities and visit exemplary programs.
The third trip is the series to Portland, OR reconvened city teams who joined us for the AYPF field trip to Newark and New York City in December 2007. Participants will learn about Portland’s varied efforts to serve disconnected youth through education and employment training as well as reflect upon their own growth since our first gathering.
Click Here For The Updated Agenda
Resources Mentions in Portland:
- Children’s Bill of Rights
- Relevant Oregon Legislation which can be found at http://www.leg.state.or.us
- Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS): 336.615-665; 329.485 (4)(5); 339.250 (9)(10)
- Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR): 581-022-1350; 581-021-0072; 581-021-0071
- Portland Public Schools Powerpoint
- Youth Master Planning Powerpoint (forthcoming)
- Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods PowerPoint (forthcoming)
- Check & Connect model mentioned by Mayor-Elect Sam Adams
- Information on RECLAIM Ohio, method of redistributing juvenile justice funds
- "Dropouts, Diplomas, and Dollars": U.S. High Schools and the Nation’s Economy: Report by Alliance for Excellent Education on the cost of dropouts, available here
- New Evidence on the Monetary Value of Saving a High Risk Youth by Mark A. Cohen & Alex R. Piquero
Portland-specific information:
- Whatever It Takes: How 12 Communities are Reconnecting Out-of-School Youth, Portland, Oregon
A school district, community-based-organizations, and a community college working together for at-risk and out-of-school youth; state legislation facilitating dropout reconnection and funding of alternative education -
New Growth in Stumptown: Young Portlanders Face Twenty-First Century Challenges
Background Material on Disconnected Youth:
- Connected by 25: Improving the Life Chances of the Country’s Most Vulnerable 14-24 Year Olds
- Beyond City Limits: Cross System Collaboration to Reengage Disconnected Youth
- Education Commission of the States—At-Risk Students and Dropout Prevention
- Leave No Youth Behind: Opportunities for Congress to Reach Disconnected Youth
- Federal, State, and Local Roles Supporting Alternative Education
- Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men
- Campaign for Youth
- The Silent Epidemic
The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.
AYPF events and publications are made possible by a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, Charles S. Mott Foundation, and others.