Susan P' Curnan, Principal Investigator

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INNOVATING UNDER PRESSUREThe Evolving Story of
the 2009 Summer Stimulus in Four Featured
CommunitiesUSDOL YOUTH SUMMITS CHICAGO and
DALLAS
Susan P. Curnan, Principal Investigator Center
for Youth and Communities Heller School for
Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Agreement MI-19096-09-60-A-25 CFDA 17.262
U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training
Administration Office of Policy Development and
Research
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Sources Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix Maricopa
County, Indianapolis Marion County Interviews
and http//www.wordle.net/
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IT HAPPENED!
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THREE GOALS TODAY

• Introduction to Brandeis Study
• Snapshot of Evolving Findings Management
  Innovations and Best Practice
• Discussion of Policy, Program and System Design
  Implications

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THE BRANDEIS STUDY
Objectives

• Conduct special documentation to capture best
  practices management innovations in summer
  youth employment programs and identify
  challenges.
• Learn disseminate lessons from unprecedented
  summer program in a way that inspires motivates
  local communities to mobilize positive creative
  opportunities for youth transition to adulthood.
• Help USDOL/ETA philanthropic partners identify
  policy, programs system design implications.
• Produce four case studies overarching lessons
  learned and recommendations report.

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THE BRANDEIS STUDY
Method

• Appreciative Inquiry
• An approach to organizational change that
  focuses and builds on the strengths and potential
  of an organization
• (Cooperrider Srivastva, Case Western
  University)
• Every organization has something that works right
  things that give it life when it is most alive,
  effective, successful, and connected in healthy
  ways to its stakeholders and communities.
• AI begins by identifying what is positive and
  connecting to it in ways that heighten the
  energy, vision, and action for change.

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THE BRANDEIS STUDY
Method (continued)

• On-site Activities
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Participant Observation
• Performance Reports
• Literature Review

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INNOVATINGUNDER PRESSURE

• A Public-Private Funding Model for the Brandeis
  Study
• An Innovation in Itself!
• USDOL Grant to Center for Youth and Communities
  in partnership with Sillerman Center for the
  Advancement of Philanthropy, Heller School for
  Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
• Co-Investment by Philanthropic Partners
• The Skillman Foundation
• Kresge Foundation
• Lilly Endowment
• Michael Reese Health Trust
• Partners for New Communities
• Fry Foundation
• Chicago Community Trust

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WHAT HAS THEBRANDEIS STUDY REVEALED?SNAPSHOT OF
EVOLVING FINDINGS

• Management Innovations
• Best Program Practices

innovation noun 1 the introduction of
something new 2 a new idea, method, or
device innovation. Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary. 2009.Merriam-Webster Online. 16
November 2009lthttp//www.merriam-webster.com/dict
ionary/innovationgt
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MANAGEMENTINNOVATIONS

• Structure
• Discipline
• Learning
• (Sustainability)

• Learning disabilities may be tragic in children,
  but they are fatal in organizations. Because of
  them, few (organizations) live even as long as a
  person most die before age forty.
• - Peter Senge

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STRUCTUREFOUR FEATURED COMMUNITIES FOUR
DISCRETE OPERATING/MANAGEMENT MODELSJULY 2009

• DETROIT
• Strong City-Intermediary Collaboration and
  Philanthropic Leadership Provides Meaningful Work
  Experiences
• CHICAGO
• Inventive City Hub Model Provides Youth
  Development Experiences at Worksites
• INDIANAPOLIS and MARION COUNTY
• Dedicated IPIC Uses Key Partnerships to Link
  Education and Work Experience
• PHOENIX and MARICOPA COUNTY
• Streamlined City-County Coordination Provides
  Meaningful Work Experiences Across Urban,
  Suburban, and Very Rural Areas

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DISCIPLINE

• The Discipline of Innovation (Peter Drucker)
• Focus on Mission
• Results Orientation
• Monitoring for Continuous Improvement/Commitment
  to Evaluation as a Management and Learning Tool
• Resiliency

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LEARNING
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NOBEL LAUREATETONI MORRISON

• When certainty of knowing is not accompanied by
  constant learning, you reach a plateau it can
  be at forty, it can be at eight. Its true in
  every discipline most people, after a certain
  point, dont want to learn anything new because
  theyve spent years solidifying, clarifying,
  analyzing, coming to terms with all the knowledge
  that comes from experience. To constantly learn
  and change is frightening to most peoplethat is
  when you freeze history, when you pass it on as
  performed, already made, already understood,
  already furnished. And that kind of history is
  not porous. If it is not porous, if it doesnt
  translate, then it is a museum piece.

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ZOOM LENS ONBEST PRACTICE

• Criteria
• Meaningful work
• Relationship with competent, caring adults (high
  quality staff worksite supervisors)
• Youth development principles in place for
  positive developmental settings
• Opportunity to combine work learning acquire
  marketable skills (local needs)
• Age stage appropriate placements tasks
• Evidence of partnerships/coordination for
  systems of support and opportunities

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EXAMPLES OFBEST PRACTICE INFOUR FEATURED
COMMUNITIES
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YOUTH SUMMER JOBS 2009THE PROMISE AND THE
CHALLENGE
Moving From
Through
To

• Grim economic crisis throughout country
• Dramatic social, economic, political consequences
• ARRA 2009 passes
• Presidents watch words quickly, wisely with
  accountability transparency
• TEGL 3/2009 USDOL/ETA
• BIG PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS
• No recent, large scale federal summer jobs
  programlittle infrastructure/ institutional
  memory

• Little planning time! stuttered start-up
• States WIBs stepped up without hesitation
• Depended on partnerships collaboration
• Shaped summer program to meet local needs both of
  industry most vulnerable youth
• Stakeholders demonstrated exceptional commitment,
  diligence, and hard, smart work and adaptive
  capacity to Innovate Under Pressure both at
  management/leadership and program levels

• Quality jobs for kids
• Detroit 7,000
• Chicago 7,800
• Phoenix MC 1,200
• Indy MC 645
• Regional economic focus
• Emerging partnerships effective operating
  models
• Demonstration of best practice in each community
• Willingness and eagerness to do it again!
• Generally kids want to work
• Reflect analyze available data to improve next
  year

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A MIRACLE OCCURS
Innovating Under PressureThe Story of the Summer
2009 Employment Stimulus
Working Copy 10.20.09/CYC
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LEARNING UNDER PRESSUREMISTAKES,
MISCALCULATIONS UNKNOWNS IN THE RE-LEARNING
YEAR

• Prepare for creative financing options
• Streamline eligibility determination, assessment,
  orientation
• Create seamless infrastructure for data
  management systems, payroll options, etc.
  (unintended costs to worksites, need for vouchers
  for transportation and clothing, etc.)
• Match jobs/education to participant skills,
  interests and location
• Orient, train and monitor worksites
• Rememberno one can go it alone collaborate year
  round with all sectors (government, nonprofit,
  education and philanthropic)
• Start planning now for summer 2010summer is a
  year-round job!

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POLICY, PROGRAM AND SYSTEM DESIGN
POSSIBILITIESTO THINK ABOUT
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• Everyone has part
• of the answer,
• no one has it all

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CYC SIGNATURE MODEL FOR MANAGING COMPLEX CHANGE1
1Based on CYC experience in more than 100
communities and early change management research
by Mary Lippett, author of The Leadership
Spectrum.
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TURNING THE TRIANGLEUPSIDE DOWN FROM MISMATCH
TO REMATCH
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AND THE CHALLENGEIS STILL GREAT -

• Americans can no longer count on importing the
  talent it needs to maintain a dominant position
  in the global economy. As the number of jobs
  requiring only a high school education shrinks,
  we must cultivate more 21st century workforce
  skills domestically. In such an environment, we
  can ill afford to allow two-thirds of our young
  people to reach adulthood without all of the
  resources they need to compete. We can afford
  even less to allow more than one-fifth of our
  children to enter adulthood with little or no
  hope of success.

Tom Friedman, The World is Flat (2005)
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THE HELLER SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL POLICY AND
MANAGEMENT Knowledge Advancing Social Justice
Our job as Academic Activists To make
knowledge productive for policy makers,
managers, leaders, practitioners in government,
business and nonprofits and change agents who
want to close the gap between what we know and
what we do on behalf of children, youth and
families, particularly those who are vulnerable
as a result of poverty, economic insecurity,
gender, homophobia, racism, disease, ethnic
discrimination, disability and age