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.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has a new funding opportunity. Up to
$375,000 will be awarded for demonstration projects to improve health care access in
rural areas. RFP deadline: October 16. For more program information, click here.

This program awards up to $10,000 for collaborative initiatives that support the vision
objectives in Healthy People 2010, which address examinations and prevention, eye
diseases, injury and safety and vision rehabilitation. Deadline: August 29, 2008.

This National Council on Aging program is offering funds to help multigenerational and
civic engagement projects document effective local approaches and impact. Deadline for
concept paper: August 1, 2008.

How can we improve the odds for young people? This Forum for Youth Investment Ready by
21 webinar examined the major child and youth development frameworks and offered
real-world experiences of how a coordinating a framework can improve youth programs and
policies -- and outcomes for children and youth.

This toolkit from Next Gen toolkit is designed to help organizations collect and use
local survey and focus group data about frontline youth workers to make the case for
investing in workforce development. The tools include a guide, survey and focus group
instruments, data entry and analysis worksheet and a sample presentation. (Find more
resources in the July 2008 Next Gen Bulletin, now online.)