Purpose :

The Petaluma Youth Network (PYN) is a learning community made up of a diverse group of youth and adults representing families, education, business, government, law enforcement and youth serving agencies. We are committed to ensuring that all youth in this community are prepared for learning, thriving, working, and community life (giving back/civic and family responsibility) by 21. The Petaluma Youth Network is a safe and confidential environment where members of the learning community can talk freely about what we see as strengths, problems, opportunities, and innovative ideas. The PYN will create shared goals, take accountability, and implement activities, programs, and projects to close the gap between the current status and our goals. It is our intent that these goals, measures, and action plans will be adopted by businesses, government, educational institutions, and the boards of youth serving agencies throughout the community. As a result, more youth will have access to the assets they need and more youth will be “Ready by 21”.

The Petaluma Youth Network is developing a “report card” that will enable all members of the community to look frankly at the state of youth in Petaluma. The report will cover five broad areas that reflect current research and best practices related to preparing youth for learning, thriving, working, and community life. This report will allow us to put a spotlight on areas where we have concerns, do detailed analysis, and take action to ensure all youth in Petaluma are successful.

Why are we here?

1. There is great work being done in the community by various agencies and organizations toward increasing youth success. While most youth are doing well, some are still not succeeding, some are failing terribly, and this has a cost to the entire community.

1. Petaluma is a community that values youth; however, our program structures for including authentic youth voices in decision-making are weak and mechanisms for youth input are also weak.

1. Petaluma youth are motivated, but many do not feel they have the appropriate structures to get involved. Young people and adults assume youth know about opportunities, but communication channels are not developed with young people in mind; many times youth don’t know about or have access to opportunities that are available to them.

Our vision is that ALL YOUTH are Ready by 21:

• Ready for Learning
• Ready for School
• Ready for Work
• Ready for Life