Ready by 21 Challenge
You are invited to participate in The Ready by 21 Challenge:
For Petaluma to be a place where ALL youth, ages 0-25 are ready to learn, work and live.
How? All families, agencies and community groups will come together with a shared vision, shared goals, coordinated action and shared accountability to improve the outcomes for youth.
Background:
The Petaluma Youth Network (PYN) is a learning community made up of youth and adults representing families, education, business, government, law enforcement and youth serving agencies. Over the last 2 years, the PYN has provided a safe environment where youth serving agency leaders have talked freely about our strengths, challenges, opportunities and ideas. We found innovative ways to support youth success, collaborated to close service gaps and strengthen the safety net for youth at risk.
Why consider a community-wide action plan?
These are turbulent social and economic times. All sectors of the youth-serving community are facing dramatic reductions in funding as youth and families are facing unprecedented change, uncertainty and stress. In light of this reality, we have an unusual opportunity for all sectors of the community to come together to identify what is at the core of child and youth success so that each young person has access to necessary learning opportunities and supports twenty four hours a day, seven days a week from birth to young adulthood so they are truly able to thrive, learn, work, and live.
The Ready by 21 Action Plan:
Across the United States, communities are learning that in order to prepare young people for success, they must collectively examine community resources and needs, and plan strategies and actions that make a difference in the community’s ability to provide the necessary supports, opportunities, and services to young people.
The Ready by 21 goal is to ensure that we all understand and agree on the basics that must be in place for youth to thrive, learn, work and live. Based on this understanding we can take shared accountability for having the systems, services, and programs that we must have. We can align policies and resources, increase demand for more and better supports, and engage youth and families in the strategies that will increase youth success.
Because Petaluma is a community that has the wherewithal to take bold and creative steps for our youth, we have engaged the Forum for Youth Investment, a national action tank, (www.fyi.org) to help us develop the first truly comprehensive community wide action agenda for youth. Leaders from all sectors in the community have joined us in this challenge. We want you to participate in creating and implementing that action agenda.
The Plan:
Young people need developmental supports and opportunities throughout ages 0-21 years. Ready by 21 Petaluma ensures that all children and youth have the opportunity to be fully prepared for education and life long learning and to be engaged in behaviors that result in optimal health and well-being. The plan will ensure that youth are able to progress toward employment in the field of their choice and that they feel safe, respected, and connected in all areas of their lives while they are engaged in the community through activities that make a positive difference.
The Petaluma Ready by 21Action Plan will address each developmental area in a young person’s life through the lens of learning, working, thriving (physical and mental well-being), connecting (social and emotional well-being), and leading (civic engagement). The approach includes problem-reduction (protecting), prevention, preparation and development; as well as engagement and leadership.
The Petaluma Ready by 21 Plan will include a cross-sector understanding of basic services such as transportation, health, food, housing, finance, etc. It will address the learning and engagement supports, opportunities, coaching, and programs needed to ensure all youth have the opportunity to succeed in their educational, career, and life goals. The plan will addresses multiple settings including school, home, work, and in the community. And it will cross outcome areas including civic, social, emotional, physical, vocational, and cognitive.
In light of the challenging times ahead for our community, community-wide strategic action and evaluation are critical components of a 21st century education, pathways for economic security, optimal physical and behavioral health, safe and connected communities, as well as sustainable leadership and civic engagement.
Why we are inviting you to participate:
The Petaluma Ready by 21 Plan will provide us with a community-wide picture of youth success and a targeted action plan that will improve the odds for youth success in learning, working, and living. This collective effort requires focused time, commitment, resources, and a willingness to think beyond an immediate scope of responsibility and turn attention to the bigger picture of supports, opportunities, and resources necessary for young people to learn, thrive, connect, work, and lead.
What, How and When:
Over the next 4 months, the community will create the Ready by 21 Action plan. We will have two leadership retreats; November 3rd from 8:30 to 12:30 and December 8th from 8:30 to 12:30. Between these retreats we will host 10 community town hall meetings to ensure that all sectors of the community, families and youth have input and opportunity to participate. Between December 8th and the end of February 2010 we will facilitate strategy teams to move from plan to action.
To participate contact Pat Landrum, Executive Director and John Milburn, Project Coordinator for the Petaluma Youth Network, The Healthy Community Consortium.
Telephone: 707-778-4951 Email: rb21@healthycommunity.info
To learn more about Ready by 21 Challenge and the Forum
click on the links below.
Ready By 21 Challenge Key Ideas