Across the country, too few youth leave high school ready for success. Community statistics and conditions vary, but there is no community across the country that is doing well enough by its children and youth. There is a need to do more.

The Forum, along with the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, recently completed the Fourth Annual Youth Policy Institute.  The Institutes bring together state policymakers and are designed to help state governments obtain better outcomes from their youth policies and programs.

On May 15, Karen Pittman moderated a panel – Preparing Youth for Success in a Global Economy – at the Community Leaders Conference hosted by United Way of America in Baltimore. Karen spoke about the Ready by 21 framework data on youth readiness that can be applied to work supporting youth.

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As a part of the Ready by 21 national partnership agreement between the Forum and the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Forum agrees to support state legislators as they work to implement a Ready by 21 approach in their states.

The 2008 Directory of State Children’s Cabinets and Councils provides at-a-glance responses to basic but important questions: which states have children’s cabinets and councils? Who is involved in them? What do they do? The guide provides summaries of interviews done with children’s cabinet and council directors in the latter half of 2007.

Twelve Children’s Cabinet directors came together to share ideas and hear from Karen Pittman about how to better align youth policy in their states. We also had the opportunity to facilitate a Consensus Planning Day with the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children and stakeholders from throughout the state.

The NGA Center for Best Practices hosted an audio conference on creating a children's cabinet, strengthening an existing cabinet and improving outcomes for children and youth.