Louisville, Kentucky, has made great progress in bringing together agencies, organizations and programs to coordinate services for children and youth -- there's even innovative data sharing. The Forum for Youth Investment convened stakeholders to ask: how can a community come together to provide all children and youth a chance to succeed? Read
the full story and learn Louisville's answers.

The National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education and Families has a new action kit to help municipal leaders create a master plan that brings together the schools, agencies and organizations working with youth to develop a shared vision and framework to coordinate services.

This new report from the Kellogg Foundation, the Monitor Institute and Clohesy Consulting examines innovation theory and practiceand how innovation in the social sector could become a more consistent and reliable commodity for social good.

ExploraVision competition gives students in grades K– 12 the chance to create their own visions of the future. Student teams select and research a current technology and then explore what it could be like 20 years from now. Members of the four first-place teams will each receive a $10,000 US Savings Bond and an expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC to be recognized for their achievements.

To borrow a tagline and flip it: what happens in Washington, doesn’t stay in Washington—far from it. Budget and policy decisions on Capitol Hill (and in state capitals across the country) have a big impact on even the smallest neighborhoods.

This report provides critical information on the costs, funding sources, financing
strategies and sustainability of youth engagement. Included are also several profiles of
youth engagement programs that have implemented various promising strategies to finance
and sustain their work.

September 15— The National Collaboration for Youth (NCY), a 40 year old coalition of youth-serving nonprofits, has proposed a national policy agenda, “Toward a Brighter Future: An Essential Agenda for America’s Young People.”

While most would agree that “children are our greatest asset,” the federal government’s investment in children and youth continues to decline. The National Collaboration for Youth offers an agenda and policy recommendations to help states and our nation meet the needs of America’s children and youth in 2009 and beyond.

The Every Child Matters Education Fund and its local, state and national partners are hosting a nonpartisan event on the capitol steps in Washington, DC, and all 50 states to draw public attention to issues affecting America's children—poverty, health care, juvenile incarceration, early care and education, child abuse, and after-school programs.

The Arts Action Center has a range of resources to take action on behalf of the arts. You can check the latest arts policy issues and find tools to identify and communicate
effectively with local, state, and federal elected representatives and media outlets.