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The 2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book report released this month by The Annie E. Casey Foundation provides an annual snapshot of how America’s children and families are faring in areas of economic wellbeing, education, health, family and community in all 50 states.

The KIDS COUNT data shows progress in some categories between 2010 and 2015, but also highlights areas of concern. Of particular note, according to the report:

• Parental employment and wages are up, and a record number of children have health insurance.
• Teenagers are more likely to graduate high school and less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.
• Child poverty rates remain high (21% across the nation), and more families live in neighborhoods with a high concentration of poverty.
• Far too many children are below grade level in reading and math.

“Even where we see improvements, deep racial and ethnic disparities remain,” the report states. “Although trends in child well-being are shaped by many forces, it’s indisputable that good public policy makes a tremendous difference. We know that a failure to invest wisely — or to not invest at all — negatively affects children’s opportunities to reach their full potential.”

The purpose of the report is to highlight to policymakers areas of need and to encourage them to continue to support targeted investments that help the nation’s children. Decades of research has shown that children who are given access to early childhood education and other social support services are more likely to be healthier, to graduate from high school, and to become gainfully employed.

“By not prioritizing poverty reduction and by failing to adequately ameliorate its effects when children are young and intervention has the biggest payoff, we waste an unconscionable amount of individual human potential,” the report stated. “A decade ago, researchers found child and youth poverty cost the country an estimated $500 billion a year in reduced economic output and increased health and criminal justice expenditures. These costs are undoubtedly higher today. But far beyond wasted dollars, failing to provide children with opportunities to reach their potential jeopardizes our nation’s prosperity and economic position in the world.”

In this year’s report, New Hampshire ranked first among states for overall child well-being, moving up one from 2016. Massachusetts and Vermont filled out the top three. Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi were the three lowest-ranked states. Data are available for all states.

Want to know more about ACS’ work with children? Our success with clients such as PRE4CLE, Franklin County Department of Jobs and Family Services, and First Things First Arizona highlight ACS’ work with systems that support children and youth a priority in communities across the nation.

Recently released by The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP),  “Everybody Got Their Go Throughs”: Young Adults on the Frontlines of Mental Health summarizes findings from focus groups and analysis of data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The report’s major findings are a call to action, underlining the importance of an assets-based approach to mental health supports for youth and young adults. Such an approach recognizes and validates strengths, resilience, and young adults’ drive to fully achieve their education, employment, and life goals.

Young adults living in poverty face high exposure to “go throughs”: lived experiences of structural disadvantage and trauma with lasting implications for educational, economic, and other life outcomes. They frequently “get through” these challenges without formal mental health supports, relying on community-based programs and peer networks to cope with their experiences.

In the context of the current federal health care fight, “Everybody Got Their Go Throughs” highlights the racial and economic justice implications of the Medicaid expansion and full implementation of the mental health parity and prevention provisions of the Affordable Care Act for low-income young adults. Beyond the current political moment, the report also outlines a set of principles for framing mental health policy and practice.

Check out the report and some interesting info graphics from the research including how youth interviewed define mental health and statistics about youth and mental health in our nation today.

Want to know more about ACS work with youth? Check out the case study regarding The City of Little Rock’s Master Plan for Children, Youth, and Family, which ACS led and developed along with community partners or the media coverage (News 5 Cleveland, Cleveland Magazine, ideastream, and Cleveland.com) ACS secured for A Place 4 Me (AP4M) 100-Day Challenge which focused on securing housing for 103 homeless youth ages 15-24 in Cleveland/Cuyahoga County in the fall of 2016.

PRE4CLE released its second annual report last week showing that Cleveland has continued to make strides toward expanding access to high-quality preschool for all of its children. PRE4CLE is Cleveland’s plan to expand high-quality preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the city, as part of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools. PRE4CLE’s work to expand access to high-quality preschool targets neighborhoods where there are not enough high-quality preschools available to meet the need in the community.

After PRE4CLE’s second year, 4,277 children in Cleveland are enrolled in high-quality preschool, —a 50% increase in preschool enrollment since 2013. Additionally, 22 out of 33 neighborhoods have increased their high-quality preschool supply, including 16 neighborhoods that now have enough high-quality preschool seats to serve at least 50% of the neighborhood population, up from 11 when PRE4CLE started. Children enrolled in PRE4CLE classrooms also made strides toward kindergarten readiness.

The preschool expansion plan was launched in 2014 and has garnered $8.9 million in public and private support from Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cuyahoga County, PNC Bank, The George Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, The Abington Foundation, Bruening Foundation, Thomas H. White Foundation, and The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation. ACS’ deep knowledge in early childhood issues across the country, as well as expertise in facilitation, communication, advocacy, and strategy development, helped guide Cleveland, Ohio’s plan for preschool, PRE4CLE.

PRE4CLE’s annual report was reported on by WVIZ Ideas and Cleveland Crain’s Cleveland Business.

To learn more about how ACS works with early childhood clients like PRE4CLE and ACS’ expertise in early childhood education, see the case studies by clicking here.

Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia were recently highlighted by Business Facilities as homes for some of the nation’s leading workforce development programs. The article focuses on the connections between business and education institutions to create job-specific vocational learning in high schools, community colleges and universities. Highlighted programs include:

• Accelerate Alabama, a strategic plan to bring economic development and education interests together to accelerate workforce training across the state.
• WorkSource Georgia, the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) and Georgia WorkSmart, which collectively help to improve the quality of job training and marketability of Georgia’s workforce for the economic growth of the state.
• The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership and the Job Training Incentive Program operated by the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development.
• New Mexico’s Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP), that provides up to six months of  classroom and on-the-job training for new jobs in expanding businesses.
• The Pennsylvania Combined Workforce Innovation and Opportunity State Plan, which goes hand in hand with cross-department collaboration at the state level.
• Tennessee’s Drive to 55 Alliance, which brings together public and private sector partners who want to see 55 percent of Tennesseans achieve a college degree or certification by 2025.
• Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a 50-year-old program that provides consulting and funds to companies that are creating new jobs or adapting to new technologies.

Programs like these are critical, says the article, to supply the necessary workforce as new companies emerge and existing companies reshore their operations in the US. But the challenge of a qualified workforce is a global one, so competition for skilled workers will be global as well. Read more about these programs and others here.

The needs, priorities, and value workforce development training programs provide to the economy are workforce development training is familiar work for Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS).   ACS has partnered with Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), which catalyzes nationwide transformative change in education, economic, and workforce development through research and action.  To learn more about how ACS works with clients like CSW and ACS’ expertise in workforce development, click here.

On April 4, 2017, a task force created in November 2016 by Austin, Texas Mayor Steve Adler delivered its recommendations for reducing institutional racism and ensuring equity in that city. The 70-page report from the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism and System Equities, co-chaired by Austin Independent School District Superintendent Paul Cruz and Huston-Tillotson University President Colette Pierce Burnette, includes recommendations in five areas: education, health, criminal justice, housing and finance.

Sample recommendations include:

• Acknowledgement of racial inequities in city policies
• The use of racial equity impact assessments on all new codes and ordinances
• Training for public leaders, city and school district employees, and law enforcement
• Greater transparency in law enforcement
• Developing a local fund to address institutional racism in housing, and offer planned upgrades to deteriorating market-rate housing to families of color
• Addressing gentrification in East Austin, a neighborhood populated mostly by communities of color
• Regular reporting of health disparities
• An anti-predatory lending campaign

The report release was covered by Austin’s NPR affiliate, KUT, and by the Austin Chronicle. How the City will receive and address the recommendations is yet to be seen.

Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) understands the importance of addressing institution discrimination in all systems, especially the education system.  ACS authored Better Than Zero, a paper on how alternative discipline is breaking the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for young people of color.  The paper takes a high-level look at national conversations and policy changes surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline and how zero-tolerance policies are changing national and in several states.  Download Better Than Zero here.

 

Research shows that childcare workers and preschool teachers with college degrees or certifications can improve outcomes for children, but many questions arise about whether those findings would hold true absent other factors like higher wages, classroom resources, and positive workplace conditions. Two recent articles – one in the New York Times and one in Inside Higher Ed — take a look at the thorny issues surrounding the professionalization of early childhood education.

Part of the challenge is in the scope of existing research. As the NYT story explains, “Studies of public early childhood programs, including in New Jersey and Oklahoma, have found positive outcomes for children when the teachers had college degrees. But since they all had degrees, it’s unclear whether the degree is what helped, something else or a combination.”

Teaching quality is also affected by the leadership and culture of an early childhood center, the availability of resources in classrooms, and – of course – the low wages that typically accompany early childhood education. Those who do pursue degrees for early childhood often move to higher-paying elementary education jobs.

One potential path forward may be for early childhood education to follow a path similar to nursing, according to Inside Higher Ed. “In the 1950s, nurses learned on the job and weren’t required to hold as many degrees or certifications as they do today. But that shift in the nursing profession to requiring more education eventually led to better compensation.”

This would mean parallel development of both training and certification requirements and increased compensation growth. According to NAEYC, the early childhood workforce needs to have a unified framework for credentials and qualifications in order to receive the public investments necessary to increase compensation, but in order to make the case for the increased compensation, evidence for comparable education, accountability and preparation must be shown.  Therefore, conversations around compensation and training requirements must happen simultaneously.

Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) is proud partner of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  NAEYC is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research. NAEYC recently launched a two-year initiative called Power to the Profession (P2P), which seeks to unify the early childhood profession and develop a consistent structure for competencies, qualifications, standards, and compensation for all those who work in the early learning field. ACS currently provides technical assistance for five NAEYC state affiliates across the country that were chosen by NAEYC to conduct outreach and engagement with the early childhood field and inform the P2P process. More information about NAEYC’s work to expand the early childhood profession can be found here.

Disconnected youth are people between the ages of 16 and 24, who are neither in school or working.  This group is 65% more likely to be poor, four times as likely to have a child, and three times as likely to have a disability in comparison to their counterparts who are in school or working.  Measure of America, a non-profit research council, hosted a webinar in April 2017 to address the decline of disconnected youth nationally, and the remaining challenges this group faces in light of their recent report.

Nationally, 12.3% of youth are considered disconnected, which is down from the rate of 14.7% during the 2010 Great Recession.  On the local level, rural areas have the highest rates of disconnected youth, with 20.3% of youth considered disconnected between 2010-2014.  While the overall number of disconnected youth is declining, disparities by race and ethnicity among disconnected youth persist.  25% of Native American youth are disconnected, and 19% of black youth are disconnected.  Even if incomes level were the same among races, the probability of disconnection is still greater for black, Latino, and Native American youth in comparison to Asians and whites.

While the rates of disconnected youth are declining, there is still more work to be done, especially considering the disparities of disconnection along race and ethnicity.  Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) understands how communities can engage children, youth, and families to better address their needs.  The City of Little Rock turned to ACS to develop the city’s first ever three-year Master Plan for Children, Youth, and Families in February 2015.  Little Rock’s Master Plan was completed in June 2016 and provided a clear roadmap for a coordinated, citywide approach relevant to the needs, desires, and expectations of its residents. Read the full case study here to learn more about how ACS used facilitation expertise, strategy development, research, and community engagement to build capacity and create new city processes and a strategic roadmap for children, youth, and families.

On May 2, Harvard University acknowledged First Things First (FTF) as one of the Top 25 Innovations in American Government as part of a nation-wide awards competition that recognizes creative and solution-oriented governing.

The Top 25 Innovations in American Government were selected by a team of policy experts, researchers, and practitioners at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University.  The initiatives chosen represent the work of city, state, and federal governments, and address policy issues like economic development, environmental and community revitalization, public health, equal access to education, criminal justice, and healthcare.

First Things First’s application focused on an innovative, citizen-led governance structure that engages Arizonans as volunteer leaders to ensure that Arizona’s early childhood development funds are invested in strategies that improve outcomes for young children statewide.

“First Things First’s innovative governance model reflects the very essence of citizen engagement,” Chief Executive Officer Sam Leyvas said. “Our unique structure empowers communities, ensuring that public programs reflect their unique needs and making them an integral part of enhancing school readiness for the children in their area.”

Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) has partnered with FTF and organizations like them to initiate and advance a holistic approach to helping our nation’s young children get the best start in school and life. Learn more about ACS’s successes with First Things First here and read the press release about FTF’s recognition from the Ash Center here..

According to a Measure of America report released on March 8, nearly 100,000 youth in Phoenix, AZ ages 16-24 were “disconnected” in 2010— neither enrolled in school nor employed in work. In less than a decade, however, the community has decreased its disconnected youth population more than any other metro area, by 26%, down to 74,000 currently.  A great deal of the credit for this drop goes to a collective effort of nearly 100 businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, schools, and political leaders, who joined together to create Opportunities for Youth, a partnership working towards reducing the number of disconnected youth in Phoenix.

Opportunities for Youth provides connection and support for participating organizations to help them coordinate services to disconnected youth. It also helps raise awareness of the issue and advocates for policies at the local and state level to underwrite efforts to reduce the number of disconnected youth. In addition, the organization works with local employers to create job pathways for youth and hosts several youth job fairs each year.

“I’m giving them a big thumbs up,” said Kristen Lewis, co-director of Measure of America, a national organization that produces youth-disconnection reports. “We’ve been watching Phoenix closely. They really brought together all of the key players. They took it on in such a serious way, saying, ‘We can’t be last.'”

Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) recognizes that many cities want to collaboratively address the needs of children, youth, and families.  The City of Little Rock turned to ACS to develop the city’s first ever three-year Master Plan for Children, Youth, and Families in February 2015.  Little Rock’s Master Plan was completed in June 2016 and provided a clear roadmap for a coordinated, citywide approach relevant to the needs, desires, and expectations of its residents. Read the full case study here to learn more about how ACS used facilitation expertise, strategy development, research, and community engagement to build capacity and create new city processes and a strategic roadmap for children, youth, and families.

Former Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS) client Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health (WI-AIMH) has found recent success with their communication and advocacy efforts.

WI-AIMH Executive Director Lana Nenide recently appeared on a panel hosted by Milwaukee PBS and Milwaukee Area Technical College called What Matters Most: Your Child’s First Five Years, a program designed to help parents of young children and family caregivers understand the vital role they play in a child’s development.  This discussion aired on April 9, 2017.  In addition, WI-AIMH has been increasing their advocacy efforts by writing and meeting with members of the Wisconsin state legislature to discuss the importance of the early years for children.

WI-AIMH strives to promote social and emotional wellness of infants, young children in the context of the most important relationships. Given the small size of the organization, Lana understands that strategic communication is the key to WI-AIMH’s success statewide.

In 2015, WI-AIMH asked ACS to develop communication materials and a strategy to raise the organization’s profile as a content expert and increase awareness about infant mental health in the state of Wisconsin among policymakers, the professional community, and families. ACS did this by leading a strategy session with WI-AIMH staff and board to inform communication goals, strategies, and activities, as well as an actionable timeline. ACS also developed messaging guidance to improve communication to target audiences. Armed with an intentional communication plan, WI-AIMH has begun to raise their profile in Wisconsin and nationally with media appearances like this on PBS.  To learn more about ACS’ work with WI-AIMH, click here.