Jenny Bogoni, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Leveraging Resources to Support the Educational Needs of Disconnected Youth

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

American Youth Policy ForumDecember 14, 2009

AgendaAgenda

1. About the Philadelphia Youth Network

2. Case Study of Project U-Turn

3. Conditions for Success

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

Vision: Philadelphia’s young people take their rightful places as full and contributing members of a world-class workforce for the region .

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

Mission:As a catalyst for collective action, the Philadelphia Youth Network makes connections among individuals, organizations and systems. We increase capacity and resources in order to provide world-class preparation so our City’s youth can thrive in a regional and global economy.

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

History: • Started in 1999 to sustain the city’s School-to-

Work system and manage provisions of the Workforce Investment Act

• Staffed the Youth Council from inception• Serves as administrator of WIA and related

investments• Began with the vision to use WIA funds to

leverage additional investments and broad systems change

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

A Decade Later: • Substantially increased its portfolio of investments

to approximately $35 million in FY ‘10• Manages a large-scale youth workforce

development system serving nearly 10,000 youth annually

• Convenes a city-wide collaborative that has managed to dramatically increase the number of high-quality educational options for disconnected youth

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

Two citywide initiatives:

• Convenes Project U-Turn, a cross-sector collaborative, addressing city-wide capacity to support struggling students and OSY

• Leads WorkReady Philadelphia, the City’s youth workforce development system

Project U-Turn: a citywide campaign to focus public attention on Philadelphia’s dropout crisis and to design strategies and leverage investments to resolve it.

Project U-Turn Major SuccessesProject U-Turn Major Successes

Tangible Results:• Nearly 5,000 multiple pathways slots representing a true

portfolio of options for out-of-school and disconnected youth • Re-Engagement Center at the Central School District

headquarters to assist students in re-enrolling in school• Education Support Center created inside Department of Human

Services• More than $73 Million leveraged to support work plan

Political Accomplishments:• Dropout challenge is embraced by the Mayor, Schools

Superindendent, and other key leaders• Assembled and maintained a high-level, cross-sector

partnership

Setting the StageSetting the Stage

Strategic Decisions:• Created a formal out-of-school youth committee • Increased the Council’s investment in OSY from

30% to 50% of the WIA funds

In RetrospectIn Retrospect

Key Steps:• Selected to receive funding from the Youth

Transitions Funders Group – 1 of 5 cities• Made major investments in data collection and

analysis on the outcomes and characteristics of struggling students in Philadelphia

• Created and articulated an agenda – a Call to Action – based on the data

• Strategically positioned the work to be adopted by the Mayor’s Office and the School District

Creating the Right EnvironmentCreating the Right Environment

Recommendations:• Develop local and regional capacity to support

dropout re-engagement• Promote collection and analysis of data on

dropouts and near dropouts• Support local and regional efforts to innovate

Philadelphia Youth NetworkPhiladelphia Youth Network

For more information, contact:jbogoni@pyninc.org

www.pyninc.org267-502-3737

Leveraging Resources to Support the Educational Needs of Disconnected Youth