Where a child is born and raised can plays a surprisingly large role in his or her chances of getting and staying healthy and surviving to adulthood, according to this major new report by the nonpartisan Every Child Matters Education Fund. There’s a “huge investment gap” across the states—Every Child Matters is urging adults who care to get the facts and take action to make better investments and better outcomes a priority.

“Because I have a strong belief in the power of community action and citizen engagement in all areas of child well-being, I constantly comb major Websites and print publications for relevant Real People, Real Results stories to share with CFK readers,” writes Hershel Sarbin. A recent find in Casey Family Services Voices publication prompted his thoughts on how nonprofits can do a better job reaching a broad audience.

An April 2008 report from the America’s Promise Alliance has stunning data about the high school graduation rate in our nation’s 50 largest cities: only about half (52 percent) of students in the main school systems actually finish high school with a diploma—the number is as low as 35 percent in Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and Indianapolis. A new Dropout Prevention Campaign is working hard to make sure those numbers improve, and that all students are ready for college, work and life.

Tracking the reach and results of the work is a challenging task for many child and youth organizations. In our ongoing Scorecard series, CFK and Child Advocacy 360 highlight examples of organizations' efforts to measure impact and results. Here, Children's Rights, Inc., shares its follow-up to the groundbreaking Hitting the M.A.R.C. foster care reimbursement study.

A few months ago, in this column, Hershel Sarbin challenged child advocacy organizations to do a better job of showing Return on Investment from research and surveys on critical issues in child well being. Here's what he's found so far.

In Bakersfield, California, parents formed a walking group that turned out to be good for the health of their community, as they took on dangerous litter, crime and traffic to make their streets more “walkable.” This grassroots snapshot from the Children’s Advocate has the story.

On February 27, the Forum for Youth Investment and its national partners launched the Ready by 21 Challenge to help state and local leaders "change the odds for youth by changing the way they do business." Here are some of the voices from the launch, and more on the initiative, which supports bigger goals, bolder strategies and better partnerships to ensure that every young person is ready by 21—ready for college, work and life.

President Bush's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal includes $2.8 billion in cuts to programs that impact children—a 3 percent drop from last year's federal budget. First Focus, a bipartisan children's advocacy organization, takes a reader-friendly look at the numbers and what they say about our nation's priorities.

Hershel Sarbin writes: "It is my habit each month to search the sites devoted to child advocacy and child well-being in order to discover and report on Who’s Doing What That Works to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children. Whatever the organizational focus, I am always looking for 'The Scorecard'—concrete, specific data on outcomes." In this column, Hershel offers an excellent example of The Scorecard, from the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, and why tracking performance can bring real results for organizations.

If you work with teens with disabilities, you’ll want to know about the Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work (TTW) program. Its Youth Transition portion offers funds for organizations that help students receiving Social Security disability benefits find employment. Is it right for you? Melody Goodspeed, Youth Transition Specialist for TTW answers some common questions about the funding.