Published: October 31, 2005
by: Jan Richter
The October 25, 2005 White House Conference on Helping America's Youth came almost a century after the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, which historians note marked the first major acknowledgement of a federal role in protecting and helping disadvantaged children.
Since then, the country has made huge strides in efforts to protect, educate and nurture children. But recently, Mrs. Bush and others have noted a constellation of problems facing teens and young adults who for one reason or another have failed to thrive in school and in the workplace.
What's the Problem?
Nationally, as many as 32 percent of students starting out in ninth grade do not graduate from high school on time. The situation is especially dismal for students in many of the nation's high-poverty urban and rural districts. Only half of all students of color attending public high schools graduate. Youth employment rates are at record low levels as well.
Silent Crisis: Large Numbers of Youth Are Not Completing High School [2]
Resources on Mental Health Needs and Juvenile Justice Youth [3]
CFK Youth Experts Database [4]
Agenda and Speakers for the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth [5]
Arguing for improving the nation's high schools, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told the National Association of Manufacturers in September of 2005 that "The one million students who drop out of high school each year cost our nation more than $260 billion dollars [7]. That's in lost wages, lost taxes, and lost productivity over their lifetimes ...When you lose a million students every year that has a tremendous impact on our economy. And it represents the American Dream... denied."
But many say high school reform is just part of the answer. More than 5.4 million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are already out of school and out of work, yet our nation lacks a coordinated national youth policy to address their needs.
White House Conferences, Then and Now
This past year Mrs. Bush has been speaking and visiting programs across the country to give voice to her concerns about young people caught up in gangs and violence. The October 27 summit is part of that effort, designed to bring attention to exemplary programs around the country that keep young people safe and out of trouble.
The first-ever White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children in 1909, convened by President Theodore Roosevelt, brought national attention to the plight of orphans and dependent children and established the federal government's leadership role in reducing infant mortality, preventing childhood diseases and reforming child labor practices, an agenda that became the mandate for the Children's Bureau established in 1912 [9].
While excitement was high among those invited to attend this year's White House Conference on Youth, expectations for this conference were more modest.
Prevention: Just Part of the Answer
Connect for Kids spoke with several leading youth experts who were invited to attend this year's Summit on Youth to learn more about what the federal government could do improve the odds for disadvantaged young people.
When Mrs. Bush began her initiative, she posed the question—what are our communities failing to provide that our young people turn to gangs? It's a question that helps focus attention on strengthening community efforts to help teens stay out of trouble.
Youth experts agree that prevention is important, but many say we should not give up on older youth or those who have already dropped out or made mistakes. They cite a number of proven programs and approaches that have helped young people get back on track and out of trouble.
Many of these programs, like Dennis Torbett's Project CRAFT (a program of the Home Builders Institute), offer personal counseling, hands-on job training and academic instruction. Project CRAFT (Community Restitution, Apprenticeship-Focused Training) is a job training and placement initiative for young people involved in the juvenile justice system. It helps participants learn a skill, earn a second chance and return to their communities ready to find and keep a job.
Funding Matters
Given what we already know about the kinds of programs and services that can help young people turn their lives around, many advocates say it is especially frustrating to see federal funding to support such programs fall flat. Over the years federal funding has not kept pace. Funding for youth employment programs decreased from $15 billion in 1979 (real dollars) to $3 billion today [11], for example, according to the ETS report on dropout rates, One Third of a Nation.
Dorothy Stoneman, founder and president of YouthBuild USA [12], reports that despite strong bipartisan support in Congress, YouthBuild's funding has failed to keep up with demand. The program, which provides personal counseling, hands-on job training and academic instruction for older youth who have no high school diploma, served 7,000 young people in 2004—but had to turn away 10,000 more.
Bob Reeg, policy director for homeless youth at the National Network for Youth, puts it bluntly: "If what comes out of this conference is a call for more quality programs like the ones showcased at the conference, that doesn't advance things very far—unless we get more commitment for funding to pay for quality services."
Betsy Brand, Director of the American Youth Policy Forum [13], agrees that funding is important, but counters that giving local schools and programs the flexibility to move dollars from one "funding stream" or category to another can have a huge impact.
Brand says "one thing we hear consistently—especially from successful programs and small schools—is that they need flexibility in funding for staffing so you can add more teachers or more counselors or more school nurses, based on what your students need." The federal government could do more to reduce regulatory barriers that get in the way of using public education dollars more effectively.
Vicki Wagner, president of the network, says we don't even know how many kids are homeless—some as young as 12 years old. "We use a census figure of 1.6 million, but there are one-night counts in communities across the country that would indicate the numbers are probably higher."
Wagner says that the Homeless and Runaway Youth Act is intended to provide an alternative to the juvenile justice system by establishing a continuum of care for youngsters without a family or home to go to. But Wagner notes that the flat funding for homeless and runaway youth services over three decades has taken a toll. Funding that once was adequate to run a 6- to 8-bed facility with comprehensive services now only provides a few days of intermittent counseling on the street or a couple of beds in an emergency shelter, says Wagner.
The Urban Health Initiative says it's hard for successful local programs to maintain their gains when state and federal dollars begin to disappear. Philadelphia's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, led by Philadelphia Safe and Sound, has dramatically reduced youth homicide rates [15], for example, but is finding it hard to keep going in this era of diminishing public dollars.
Beyond Funding—A Waste of Potential
Sally Prouty is the head of the National Association of Conservation and Service Corps, which utilizes service as a strategy to successfully re-engage youth who are out of work and out of school [16]. Modeled after the Depression-era CCC program, Youth Corps programs work to revitalize communities, restore the environment and prepare young people for responsible, productive lives.
Prouty says "we must focus on the potential in these young people and provide opportunities for them to experience success. At least one-quarter of adolescents are at serious risk of not becoming productive adults, meaning that a quarter of the future workforce lacks the skills and experiences they need to keep our economy strong and our communities healthy."
Furthermore, Prouty notes, when young people are productively engaged, they add value to their communities and the nation. For example, some corps participants are now in the Gulf Coast providing disaster relief. Prouty cites research finding that supervised, quality community service programs help young people develop life and work skills [17] while moving away from destructive behaviors.
Karen Pittman, head of the Forum for Youth Investment emphasizes the importance of making sure young people have a voice when policy and program decisions are made [18]. "As stakeholders young people's ideas and priorities need to be included not just in the meetings, but in the programs, institutions and communities in which they live, learn, work and contribute," argues Pittman.
Chris Sturgis, co-chair of the Youth Transitions Funders Group [19], concurs: "When young people are among the decision-makers at the table, we make better decisions."
Like the first White House Conference on Children in 1909, this latest White House Conference on Youth in 2005 served to bring attention where attention is due—to the young people who need our help to grow up ready for work, family and life.
But we have much more to do to make sure our public policies and dollars are adequate and aligned to provide every young person with the multiple supports they need to get ready for a productive, responsible adulthood.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3629
Links:
[1] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051027.html
[2] http://www.connectforkids.org/node/2776
[3] http://www.connectforkids.org/node/2979
[4] http://www.connectforkids.org/youth_experts
[5] http://www.helpingyouthconference.org/about.htm
[6] http://www.helpingyouthconference.org
[7] http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/09/09282005.html
[8] http://www.clasp.org/CampaignForYouth
[9] http://www.connectforkids.org/node/129
[10] http://www.hbi.org/page.cfm?pageID=129
[11] http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/onethird.pdf
[12] http://www.youthbuild.org
[13] http://www.aypf.org
[14] http://www.nn4youth.org
[15] http://www.urbanhealth.org/print_friendly/philadelphia_successful_violence_redux.htm
[16] http://www.nascc.org
[17] http://www.icicp.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/1695
[18] http://www.forumforyouthinvestment.org
[19] http://www.ytfg.org