Thinking Smarter About Public Policy for OutofSchool Time

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Thinking Smarter About Public Policy for
Out-of-School Time
Andrew Hahn, Howland Family Endowment for Youth
Leadership Development Center for 4-H Youth
Development, University of Minnesota and
Professor, Heller Graduate School for Social
Policy and Management, Center for Youth and
Communities, Brandeis University

• Howland Symposium Sponsors Minnesota 4-H
  Foundation in partnership with the Center for 4-H
  Youth Development, University of Minnesota. This
  years Howland Symposium has been chosen as a
  program of President Bruininks Agenda on
  Children, Youth and Families

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Thanks to.

• Minnesota 4-H Foundation, lead sponsor
• Center for 4-H Youth Development
• All of you from the groups connected to the Twin
  Cities Youth Work Coalition, the Youth Work
  Institute and other field-building organizations
• The University and the Presidents office

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Modest Goals Today

• First and foremost, we cant talk about policies
  without some of you thinking about . Yet, there
  is a state budget crisis! So think of this as
  agenda setting process. A 10 year process..
• Moreover, we must get out own house in order
• Less known about policy issues than programs..
• Policy requires field-building and
  community-building and systems-building. About as
  hard as it gets!

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Yet

• Even with a pre-policy period to organize, to set
  the policy agenda, to seek strategies, to
  identify championswe know that this is urgent!
• Policy saves lives. Example summer learning and
  summer homicidesafter-school risk and
  after-school learning

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Are Policies Promoting Learning in the Non-School
Hours on the Public Agenda?

• In the health care debate, we read and hear the
  talking heads discuss.
• In the gun control debate, we know the contours
  of the policy debates
• In the early childhood development field, the
  separate fields are slowly coming together to
  push for universal pre-K education
• BUT in making the most of out-of-school time, who
  is talking about the issues?

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• Ever hear of the Younger Americans Act on a talk
  show?
• Do you know and understand the technical details
  for MNs most important youth policies?
• Do you know what is spent in the State and Twin
  Cities area on programs and policies that
  promote
• Do you know who is eligible for programs?
• Are there champions from business?
• Is there a statewide coalition promoting learning
  in the non-school hours and youth development?
• Is this field as mature and as well organized
  relatively- as early childhood education?

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Dont Despair!

• Actor Rob Reiner (aka MEAT-HEAD) led a CA
  statewide initiative to dedicate cigarette taxes
  to early childhood, a model of sorts picked up
  by
• Arnold Schwarzenegger of Terminator fame.
• He promoted Prop. 49 which boosts funding for
  after-school programs by 400 million a year. By
  the way, the program would start only when the
  state budget crisis recedes and revenues
  increase..when there is a surplus of 1.5
  billion. It won 57 to 43.
• Hasta Lavista, Baby!!

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So what is policy, anyhow?

• Policies give life to programs. They may provide
  a funding stream set participation eligibility
  set performance expectations establish a
  calendar assign a lead agency determine the
  content of programs or a list of appropriate
  program designs regulate staffing establish
  rules and regulations about facilities, health
  and safety issues. Policies signal an agenda and
  the maturing of a field.

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What Policy Fields Do You Identify With?

• Juvenile Justice
• Arts and recreation
• After-school but primarily connected to the
  schools
• After-school but primarily connected to
  communitycommunity youth work
• Health
• Welfare, Employment/Training, Entrepreneurship
• Service
• Faith
• Libraries
• Special populations immigrant children,
  dropouts, teen parents
• Alternative education
• Your field here!

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Lets Start with Some Old Hat For All You Experts

• Adolescence is a pivotal period between childhood
  and adulthood. Acquire skills, competencies,
  values that will.
• Parents, families, neighborhoods, schools,
  institutions, faith groups all play critical
  roles..
• Landscape of families, communities and
  institutions is changing with wonderful and
  frightening implications
• For example informal supports weakened
  mobility work hours schools are larger and more
  impersonal media impacts neighborhood
  disinvestment crime drugs, poverty.

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The Need for Policy Would Seem Obvious

• Supervised care, especially for elementary-and
  middle school age. Latchkey issues
• Learning and skill development opportunities are
  many in the non-school hours ..summers
• Youth development is a time when civic engagement
  and community building should occur..
• It is the time when relationships with caring
  adults and other young people occurs in fun and
  often non-institutional settings
• And parents want all this. Poll data.

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Demographics Should Fuel Policy Development as
well

• 10-19 year old population is rising to 44 million
  through 2020, highest ever after a 25-year
  decline
• Total minority youth population may exceed 50
  percent by the year 2030
• Many improvements in youth indicators of
  well-being some trickle down impacts on violent
  crime, teen pregnancy, poverty, high school
  graduation rates
• Yet the persistence of vulnerability and
  risk-taking among a subset of youth is well
  documented although less so with certain
  demographic teen groups

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.
Sidebar on Immigrants Source Urban
Institute Did you know that children of
immigrants are 1 in 5 of all children and 1 in 4
of all low-income children? Comparing children
of immigrants to children of natives, 24 are in
families below 100 of the poverty line compared
to 16 among natives and 37 have one or more
food-related problems compared to 27 among
natives. Places like MN and the Twin Cities are
learning what this means for programs and
policies.
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And yetwith all this..the huge needs, the
opportunities ..the demographics.it is safe to
say that our policies are residual anemic often
misunderstood and many have features that run
against the emerging youth development paradigm
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Challenge 1Many youth programs seek to provide
learning opportunities (formal or informal)
during the non-school hours. Policy development
must deal with the great variety of players,
fragmentation, silos, and turf wars.
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Each box has their own history..supporting
policies

• Consider one little niche summer jobs and
  education programs. In policy, we had NYC, MDTA,
  CETA, JTPA, WIA.
• How the field evolved
• --fire insurance image Today Show..
• --value of work experience
• --summer learning loss
• --enriched summer jobs combined with education
• --year-round programming..internships
• --role of stipends
• --employer involvement

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In addition to fragmentation, consider a classic
policy issue who to serve? This is challenge 2

• ChildTrends, using panel data has the Cumulative
  Risk Indicator suspension/expulsion,
  intercourse, illicit drugs, alcohol, cigarettes.
  By age 15, 32 percent have engaged in two or more
  indicators
• Most studies have settled on a more conservative
  estimate of 15 percent or 4.1 million youth
  including 1.3 minority youth ages 14-to-20. These
  are youth who face scars entering their
  twenties and have accumulated over time many
  negative experiences
• Is it obvious we should emphasize policies for
  these vulnerable youth? Tough policy choices are
  typically ignored in our field.

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Yet a funny thing happened on the way to a policy
responseFragmentation and disagreement on who to
serve have blocked us in the policy realm.Just
as our understanding of vulnerable youth was in
hand, the universal youth development movement
took off.

• Being problem free is not fully prepared!
  became a new mantra. All youth need help. All
  youth need support and assistance. An exclusive
  focus on problems limits societys vision. We
  need a larger framework that promises positive
  outcomes for all youth. So a new
  universalistic field emerges!
• It says We need to move children and youth to
  the center of neighborhood and community life
  We need a new language that speaks of assets, not
  deficits, that hooks all youth up with caring
  adults
• All youth need mentoring and caring
  relationships, help with transitions, arts,
  culture, recreation, opportunities for youth
  empowerment and decision-making as well as
  political engagement.

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The new youth development concept is well
intentioned

• Growth of categorical programs, silos, legacy
  of the War on Poverty and frustrations associated
  with them.
• Evaluations showing role for prevention and
  longer-term services, comprehensive models. You
  get what you pay for
• Frustration over coordination and collaboration
  challenges search for a cross-cutting theme that
  might bring everyone to the table...
• Growth of the place-based movement and an
  assessment that youth work has lost something
  important something organic.
• The new UNIVERSALISTIC POLICY approach responds
  to these historical developments

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And yet.. getting back to policy, this well
intentioned rhetoric leads to major challenges!

• Ours is a field so impressed with its own well
  meaning rhetoric that it finds it impossible to
  approach tough choices of the kind that are
  always part of policy who to serve, how to
  serve, how to measure success, etc.
• So we need you to come to the rescue..to set an
  agendato realize that you have policy power..to
  seek partnerships with supporters who share your
  dreamsidentify new champions from business and
  the voluntary sectorroll up your sleevesdebate
  the issues

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Begin with this action step Make the case to
potential partners (foundations, employers, civic
groups) who might like to work in the policy
realm that they do not have to fear being accused
of the L word Lobbying.
Nurture support and partnerships for policy
development
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Policy Development Activities That Are Not
Lobbying

• Policy analyses data collection follow the
  money studies
• Public education campaigns
• Activities to educate and strengthen
  policymakers. Visits
• Assistance to implement current policies (exWIA)
• Finding ways to bring in the voices of vulnerable
  groups in policy development
• Collaborate with public agencies

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Action Step Help Policy-makers Signal the
importance of Making Age-specific Distinctions in
Policies

• Youth development policy should signal that youth
  services must be informed by the ages of
  participants age appropriateness. Policymakers
  and program people supporting policy projects
  should promote differentiation by age.
• Brandeis research on federal age targeting. The
  crazy quilt of age related eligibility. No
  true youth development in these policies.

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Action Step Dont hide from tough choices on
program eligibility or focus.

• Be brave. Put the tough choices on the table for
  debate and clarification
• Encourage analysis of the linkage between an
  assets approach and eligibility requirements

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A Youth Development System in theUnited States
(500 hours at 2.77per hour) SourceQOP/Brandeis
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Another Take The Academy for Education
Leadership Estimate

• 1,200 hours a year at 2.55 per hour or 3,060
  per child (6-to 17 years old) or 144 billion
• With 863,972 school age youth 6-17 years old in
  MN, the average cost for a universal system would
  be 2,644,000,000.
• In Minneapolis 47,206 youth or 144,000,000

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Action Step Draw on lessons from RD to assist
policymakers (and philanthropy) to think about
progressive policies that make possible the
things shown critical in the research
Of all the ideas shown in research to be
important, forward funding is especially critical
since we know that it takes multiple years of
support to produce dramatic outcomes for
vulnerable youth This is a reliable finding that
comes out of several evaluations, notably the
Quantum Opportunities Project (QOP)) as well as
meta-evaluations from the National Research
Council
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Action Step Educate policy stakeholders and
yourself about the true nature of current youth
policies. Two words anemic and residual

• Magnitude of policiesmodest to small
• Still a young field in the making
• Fighting for an intellectual nicheconceptual
  clarity often lacking..one
• foundation for example is retreating
• Silos dominate
• Program evaluation mixed bag
• Still in the basics -- accreditation and
  licensing, facilities, associations
• Fragmented and uncoordinatedsilos dominate
• Trojan Horse strategies often more rhetoric than
  real and few overarching omnibus approaches

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Action Step Focus on States Push for Reliable
Information about State Youth Policies

• Federal role post-Sept 11- weak
• Younger Americans Actgoing no where at the
  moment
• National Youth Summit reversal of roles
  federal government now serving the role of
  convener rather than running with proven ideas
  from the field..

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• Some Generalizations About State Youth
  Development Policies
• The size of policy development activities in
  states are small in comparison to lofty goals and
  rhetoric
• Activities in the state policy realm are in
  information and training areas, and less so in
  tangible programmatic services

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Specifically at the state level

• It is an underdeveloped fieldjust emerging
• Lofty goalsmodest means
• Mostly information, trainingless on tangible
  program dollars
• Often policy runs against emerging paradigm
• Few critical voices
• Entry point confusion.

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A major challenge is deciding on an entry point
for state or local policy

• Positive youth development
• Community youth development
• Prevention
• MOST/POST
• Character Development
• Juvenile Justice
• Schools
• Child care

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Typical State Policy Features

• Special task forces
• Youth voices
• Best Practices reviews
• Clearinghouses..resource listings..websites
• Youth worker training
• Promotion of the new positive paradigm of Youth
  Development
• Grant programs/demos
• Increases in after-school programs
• State agency collaboration

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• New Entities or Capacities Are Needed on the
  Policy Monitoring Front
• In some places, brand new youth policy
  institutions would help..
• In other places, supporting existing state or
  metropolitan policy shops would help.

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Sidebar Urban Bias in State Policies

• One fifth to one quarter of school children in
  the US attend public schools in rural areas.
  Nearly half of all public school districts in the
  US serve entirely rural areas.
• Policy challenges for rural areas
• --finding supporters
• --expensive transportation costs
• --staffing reliance on teachers for non-school
  hours and therefore incentives

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Policy Roles Can Also Mean Helping to Make Youth
Work a True Profession

• Recommendations
• Focus on licensing in partnership with state
  policymakers
• Partnerships with higher education entities
• Establish an association of practitioners

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Advancing In-Service Training Programs

• Recommendations
• Support organizational development activities
• Support is needed for basics such as training
  in financial controls, human resources policy,
  and budgeting
• Support accreditation and credit for in-service
  training

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Increasing Career Awareness

• Partnerships among policymakers, foundations and
  the private sector needed, leading to a long-term
  campaign to interest young people in careers in
  youth work.

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Another cut at policy is related to what might
be called micro policies

• Micro policy involves the following
• Establish more user-friendly municipal-level
  processes among the departments that handle
  applications for building permits.
• Convene a team to identify the obstacles for
  implementing summer youth programs and short-term
  after-school activities. Dont just adopt early
  childhood facility rules.

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SummaryThinking Smarter AboutPublic Policies
for Out of School Time

• Think through linkages among policy silos and
  players CBOs, schools, child development,
  criminal justice, arts, summer youth programs,
  etc.
• Think about the big guns (large youth-serving
  groups) compared to the little guys, CBOs.
• Scale of efforts and need to supplement
  government dollars to add flexibility and promote
  access.

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• Age specific policies
• Policy implications of an asset based approach
• (universal/target)
• Programmatic implications longer investments,
  administrative support and predictability of
  funding
• Policy Strategies Trojan horse? Omnibus?
  Blended funding and linkages..trigger mechanisms
  as in California, State policies
• Attention to equity and quality and bringing
  into policy new voices
• Make youth development a true professionfield
  building organizing theme

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• Youth worker training
• Media campaigns
• Micro policies licensure, accreditation,
  facilities, safety, etc.
• The Center for 4-H Youth Development policy
  framework works!
• Quality, Quantity, Access and Impact

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• Most of all Heal Thyself..
• Push, Think, Inquire, Probe
• Make Policy Your Constant
• Concern
• Policies give life to programs..
• Policies can sustain programs..
• Policies can structure programs..
• Policies can end programs
• Policies signal what we care about as Americans