The Federal Shared Youth Vision Partnership

1. The Federal Shared Youth Vision Partnership http://www.doleta.gov/ryf/ A Federal Partnership between the United States Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Transportation, the United States Social Security Administration, and the Corporation for National & Community Service.

2. Creating a Collaborative Approach to Prepare Youth for Success in a Global, Demand-Driven Economy In response to the 2003 White House Task Force Report for Disadvantaged Youth, a Federal Interagency Work Group was created to: • enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration among Federal agencies, and • ensure that well-designed and coordinated programs provide the neediest youth opportunities to successfully transition to adult roles and responsibilities.

3. Objectives • Develop and coordinate policy, within existing policy structures, to address the needs of our neediest youth • Maximize interagency collaborations to utilize the significant expertise within specific Federal agencies • Develop innovative approaches that efficiently and effectively respond to serving youth • Enhance the quality of service delivery and improve efficiencies • Improve the outcomes for the youth we serve

4. Federal Youth Vision Partners • US Department of Education • US Department of Health & Human Services • US Department of Housing & Urban Development • US Department of Justice • US Department of Labor • US Department of Transportation • Social Security Administration • Corporation for National & Community Service

5. COLLABORATION IS THE KEY! Working together the Federal Partners have accomplished the following:

6. Prioritized investments for: • Youth in foster care or aging out of foster care • Children of incarcerated parents • Court involved youth or those at-risk of involvement • Migrant youth • Youth with disabilities • Native American youth • Homeless and runaway youth • Out of school youth • High school drop-outs

7. ConvenedRegional Youth Forums in 2004 to: • Communicate the shared vision and commitment to collaboration • Facilitate the creation of state/tribal teams cross-agency systems to better serve the neediest youth through leveraging resources and policy alignment • Develop strategies for Federal support of the interagency teams 51 states and territories attended the forums and began work on their “Shared Youth Vision”

8. Identified State Challenges and Federal Opportunities: • The need for information on resources and services across programs/agencies • Engagement of state/tribal leadership • Models for collaboration • Common message/common language • Continued support of teams

9. Conducted Regional Forum Follow-up activities in 2005 including: • Letters to the Governors encouraging support of the new “Shared Youth Vision” • An email system: youthfed.team@dol.gov to effectively disseminate information and correspond with teams • The creation of the “Crosswalk of Key Federal Program Definitions and Program Policies” designed to address policy issues that present obstacles to cross-agency collaboration

10. Forum Follow-up, Cont. • The development of a “Federal Funding Matrix” to provide states information on funding from each of the Federal agencies in their individual states. • The creation of a “Federal/State Bench-Marking Tool” to provide teams with broad principles to assist them in gauging the effectiveness of their collaborative efforts. • A new website (http://www.doleta.gov/ryf/) for Federal and state/tribal team partners to obtain information and receive updates on current efforts.

11. In 2006, the Federal Partnership: Hosted a second set of youth forums in September: Sixteen teams were chosen to attend these “Advanced Level Technical Assistance Youth Vision Forums.” • Teams received assistance in aligning resources, staffing, barriers and challenges, resource mapping, and identifying specific interagency goals and objectives as a result of the work completed during these forums.

12. In response to requests for additional resources: A “Solutions Desk” was created to providea technical assistance (TA) resource that will: • Provide a gateway to each of the federal partners’ resource centers, clearinghouses, and training and technical assistance providers, and • Assist State Teams with their Shared Youth Vision activities.

13. The Federal Partnership is Moving Forward!

14. Moving Forward in 2007… Teams who attended the Forums will have an opportunity to apply for funding and to become a “Pilot Team”. • Pilot Teams will receive specialized technical and financial assistance designed to advance their individualized strategic plan. • This assistance will encourage their teams to move to the next level of collaboration in serving its neediest youth and become a model for the rest of the country.

15. Moving Forward… The Partnership will also work with teams to develop strategies that assist them in attracting new partners and leveraging resources by expanding their collaboration through the engagement of business and industry as well as foundations.

16. Resources: • White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth Final Report, October 2003 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/docs/white_house_taskfforce.pdf • “New Strategic Vision for the Delivery of Youth Services Under the Workforce Investment Act.” (Training & Guidance Letter No 3-04, http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL3-04.pdf • “TEGL 28-05: Expanding ETA’s Vision for the Delivery of Youth Services Under WIA to Include Indian and Native American Youth and Youth with Disabilities.” http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=2224