Changing the Odds for New Mexico’s Future

Changing the Odds for New Mexico’s Future
ASSERTIONS
The economic prospects of a state are closely and directly linked to the quality of its human and social capital.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are most easily gauged by looking at the educational, employment and civic engagement levels of its citizens, in particular its young citizens – the 0 to 24 year olds who are making transitions in school systems, work, community leadership and family life.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are most accurately gauged by looking not just at state-level data compiled by the government but also at local data contributed by youth, families, and community stakeholders.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are most effectively improved through the development and implementation of a long-term plan of action that defines a set of outcomes, identifies a set of strategies, establishes clear and specific benchmarks for progress and creates an ongoing process for public review and discussion.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are most efficiently improved when the definition of outcomes established is based on what is known about child, youth, family and community development, when the discussion of outcomes assumes that they are a non-negotiable package rather than an optional list and when accountability for all outcomes is shared, to some degree, across systems, settings and stakeholders.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are more rapidly improved when the state’s educational, corporate, philanthropic, non-profit, media, and youth resources are brought to table early to create deep public/private ownership of the goals and amass the resources needed to implement the strategies.

The human and social capital of New Mexico are permanently improved only when young people and communities, especially those most in need of renewed investments, are seen not just as the recipients of services but as key partners in creating change.

OBSERVATIONS
New Mexico is a state with new leadership, new ideas and new opportunities.

New Mexico is a state of enormous need, limited funds, but considerable human and social resources in every segment of its population.

Over the past 6 months alone, there have been several new commitments made that increase the state’s overall capacity to take a coherent look at where, when, why, how, for what and on whom it expends public and private resources and creates public and private opportunities for children, youth and their families:
§ The Governor signed tax reductions into law in the last session and his administration is aggressively pursuing economic growth and jobs creation
§ The Governor created a Children’s Cabinet through an Executive Order
§ The administration and legislature passed historic educational reform in the last session
§ The legislature passed a memorial to assess out-of-school time opportunities
§ With support from the Lt. Governor, the Legislature passed legislation to create a statewide youth advisory council
§ The New Mexico Forum is building a public-private partnership to promote investments in young people
§ The Lt. Governor and the Children’s Cabinet are encouraging the 2005 legislative session to adopt a special focus on children, youth and family issues
§ The University of New Mexico faculty has formed a working group on public responsibility, including a sub-group focused on children and youth issues
§ Regional funders including the Daniels Fund, McCune Foundation, New Mexico Community Foundation have all demonstrated support for increasing the coherence, effectiveness and scale of investments in young people
§ National funders including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Mott Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Surdna Foundation, Omidyar Foundation and Carnegie Corporation all have expressed interest in the issues New Mexico is advancing
Finally, there appear to be solid working relationships among public officials, philanthropy, academia and the private not-for-profit and for-profit sectors.
ASSESSMENT
Each of the structures, processes, mandates and reports that New Mexico has recently put in place represents a real opportunity with significant potential. Collectively, these efforts could position New Mexico to become a model for the nation of improving a state’s economic prospects by increasing the educational and economic opportunities of children and youth. However, few of these efforts have adequate human and fiscal resources, and none have the benefit of a strong strategic plan that has been built in reference to a master strategy about what needs to be done to change the odds for children and youth in New Mexico.

Many of the pieces are already in place – New Mexico has already begun forging the public-private partnerships necessary to change the odds for young people. However, our assessment, based on observations of other states and localities, is that without aggressive coaching, New Mexico’s leaders will not have the wherewithal to connect the dots, increase alignment, and form collective actions among the various new initiatives that have been put in place to improve child and youth outcomes and increase opportunities.

This is not because of a lack of public and private commitment to the issue. It is because New Mexico policy makers, planners and advocates, like those in most other states, lack firm information on the cost of not adding up what is being done across traditional divisions of agencies, programs and services. The lack of practical, political strategies for doing thorough assessments has allowed significant resource management issues to develop. In the absence of unwavering public and private commitment to make things add up for children, youth and their families, inertia will win. It is easier to do things the way they have been done before.

New Mexico cannot secure its economic future without strengthening its investments in children, youth and families. Quality of education and overall quality of life issues are two major factors that cause families to leave the state and deter businesses from coming. Without a master strategy that adds up and connects the pieces of the puzzle in an intentional, ongoing, manner, investments will not reach the levels of effectiveness, sustainability and scale necessary to change the odds for New Mexico’s Children and Youth.

PROPOSAL
The Forum for Youth Investment, the core operating division of Impact Strategies, Inc. is committed to changing the odds for children and youth in the U.S. by sparking and supporting action to increase the quality and quantity of youth investment and youth involvement in neighborhoods and across the nation.

The Forum believes that every state in the nation should add up, assess, and align their overall investments in young people to create a balanced, effective and efficient portfolio devoted to helping all young people become problem-free, fully prepared and fully engaged. In order to reach this goal, the Forum is utilizing two strategies.
1. Developing a network (“States United for Youth”) of all interested states to share strategies and build momentum for action.
2. Investing significant resources in 2-3 states to create a model for the nation.

Network. Over the course of the last year, the Forum has worked with state policy leaders from six states to create States United for Youth, an emerging national network of state youth policy officials. The aim of the network is to increase the level of investment in youth and involvement by youth in states across the country by 1) connecting and strengthening states that are taking a “big picture” approach to youth policy; 2) creating and disseminating best practices and tools; 3) ensuring state input into national public policy conversations; and 4) fostering connections among youth funders across levels (national, state, local) and sectors (public, private, voluntary).

Partnerships with States
Maryland. In July 2002, the Forum received a grant from the Open Society Institute to work with Maryland’s statewide advocacy organization, Advocates for Children and Youth (ACY) on an agenda that would do for teens and young adults what the Ready by Six initiative has done for pre-schoolers. Working with ACY, the Forum crafted and helped circulate a position paper that argued that the state of Maryland can and should ensure that every young person is ready by 21 – ready for college, ready for work, ready to contribute, ready for life – by creating a climate of cross-system accountability for a set of common indicators of youth outcomes and common standards for youth programs. In addition to the position paper, the Forum also joined and helped staff several subcommittees of the Maryland Results Committee, charged with defining the statewide indicators that will be used to track desirable results for the state’s children, youth and families. The Forum will continue to work with the Results Committee and are gearing up to advance the agenda within the new administration.

California. Thanks to grants from the Irvine and Packard Foundations in 2001-2002, the Forum has had an opportunity to focus concerted energy in California. As always, this involved a combination of supporting organizations individually and convening organizations to encourage them to work collectively toward an overarching youth agenda. The Forum has helped advance the after-school field (including facilitating a meeting of Packard Foundation grantees). The Forum is also supporting high school reform efforts through a multi-million dollar partnership with the California Department of Education and the Gates Foundation to
launch and support the High School Pupil Success Act, which will fund up to 8 high school districts to increase student achievement by supporting the development of district-community partnerships, public engagement, school transformation and systemic district reform. The Forum is also helping California’s State Youth Council develop its strategic plan, and helped draft legislation for California to launch a Youth Policy Council (in committee)

At present, the Forum can select one additional state to partner with. We believe that New Mexico currently is the best positioned to tackle most if not all necessary pieces, and would welcome the opportunity to help advance your efforts and promote them as a model for the nation.

The Forum will:
§ Assign a team, led by Karen Pittman, a nationally recognized youth policy expert and former director of the President’s Crime Prevention Council in the Clinton Administration.
§ Ensure adequate Forum- trained on the ground support to reinforce help all parties create an action plan and replicable “adding it up” process to be used;
§ Commit to raising funding needed to be steady coaches for up to 2 years from regional and national foundations;
§ Work to align efforts between the Children’s Cabinet and NM Forum, such as developing compatible and complementary frames that meet local realities and are consistent with child and youth development;
§ Provide lessons learned from other states to recommend tasks for the coordinating bodies to undertake;
§ Provide ongoing assistance to both the Children’s Cabinet and the NM Forum, providing content expertise and lessons from other states;
§ Help outline a Youth Policy Portfolio Report and provide in-depth feedback to drafts. Will draft sections requiring national perspective and examples as needed;
§ Recommend ways to create incentives and provide support to localities. May partner with a limited number of localities as demonstrations for the state;
§ Advise communications consultants and political consultants to ensure that messages are consistent with the “big picture” of young people’s needs;
§ Provide best available research on universal standards and capacity building strategies; Help develop tools for capturing citizens’ views into a consistent frame. Will help outline and review reports of views expressed. Will provide NM Forum with content to provide to individuals on its mailing lists;
§ Provide example of ways government agencies and organizations have successfully involved youth across the country;
§ Leverage our connections with other states, the federal government and national funders to bring more visibility and resources to New Mexico.
§ Document the process and the progress that New Mexico will make so that the state’s lessons can be shared with other states through publications and presentations and organizations such as the National Governor’s Association’s policy institutes.

Overarching Frame for Adding Up, Assessing and Aligning Action. Coordination and portfolio development will yield little if they are not being driven by a clear, compelling vision. Having a well-conceived set of categories through which to view portfolios and make strategic adjustments is critical to success.

Cross-Cutting Coordinating Bodies Aligning Action Among and Between Policy-Makers, Non-Governmental Organizations and Youth. Some group needs to oversee the portfolio development process – collecting and organizing the data – as well as creating strategic changes to rebalance the portfolio as needed. Three sets of players need to be involved: (1) the decision-makers, generally the public and private funders at a senior level, covering the full range of youth-focused systems (education, juvenile justice, youth employment, health and human services, etc.); (2) the advocates and service providers, generally the heads of non-governmental organizations; and (3) young people themselves. These bodies must be given a clear mandate, authority and resources to complete the tasks below against an aggressive timeline.

Adequate Staffing and Support. In order for coordinating bodies to be effective, they need full time staff, consistent funding, and support from local and national technical assistance organizations.
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Parallel Efforts at All Levels of Government. A portfolio approach is needed at all levels of action – from neighborhoods to nations. States must encourage and support parallel portfolio efforts in cities, counties and communities by committing resources for localities to undertake parallel processes using compatible tools, and states must advocate that Federal agencies grant the necessary waivers and flexibility.

Communications Strategy. Tested messages and messengers that promote a positive picture of youth, and link together the array of things young people need into a coherent agenda.

Political Strategy. The state youth policy plan must be clearly linked to the Governor’s top priorities, and must tie in to the Governor’s political strategy.

Capacity Building Strategy. Rebalanced portfolios only effect changes in the lives of young people when they translate into changes on the ground. Significant resources need to be devoted to building the capacity of local people (practitioners and volunteers), organizations, and communities. These capacity building strategies work best when they are aligned across departments and agencies.
Constituency Building Strategy. An alliance of organizations and individuals committed to youth from across sectors and systems that is ready and willing to advocate on behalf of young people across issues and sectors.

Funding Strategy. Undertaking a portfolio approach and launching the communications, political, capacity building, and constituency building strategies necessary to advance recommendations is not cheap. A well-devised funding strategy is necessary.

Youth and Community Engagement Strategy. Young people and families need to be engaged as critical actors in each of the components above – from developing the vision, to writing the report, to communications, political, capacity building, constituency building, and fundraising strategies. This requires sophisticated staff experienced in working with young people, supporting them as a group, and providing them the resources they need to effectively represent not only their own views, but the views of young people throughout the region.

Accountability Strategy. Work by the cross-cutting coordinating body must be driven by a shared sense of accountability to do things differently and better for young people. This can be done by releasing a “Youth Policy Report” at regular intervals to show gaps, progress and recommendations. Each report should be presented within the overarching youth policy framework and should cover answer a range of questions about outcomes, financing, best practice including:

§ Youth Outcomes– how well youth are achieving in each area of the portfolio;
§ Youth Options– an assessment of the quantity and quality the services, supports and opportunities available to young people in each area of the portfolio;
§ Youth Budget – what resources are being allocated to each area of the portfolio
§ What Works– what research tells us about the importance of investments in each area (cost benefit analysis), as well as clear definitions and measures of program quality which are consistent across departmental lines.
§ Youth Policy Ratings. Common standards through which to evaluate whether any given policy promotes positive youth development, regardless of what sector it emerges from. An analysis of the quality of current youth policies.
§ Recommendations and Commitments. Recommendations for shifts based on the report, as well as public commitments for action
APPENDIX B: CURRENT AND RECOMMENDED ACTIONS (PAGE 1 OF 2)

TASKS ACTIONS TAKEN/ACTIONS RECOMMENDED (in italics) ASSISTANCE OFFERED BY THE FORUM FOR YOUTH INVESTMENT
Children’s Cabinet New Mexico Forum
Overarching Youth Policy Vision and Frameworks § Goals of Children’s Cabinet include, but are not limited to: All children in New Mexico achieve literacy by the end of the third grade; Increase the availability of health insurance; Ensure children receive proper immunizations; Increase availability of childcare to parents working their way off of welfare, Remove administrative barriers to obtaining public assistance, track indicators concerning children and their health, education, safety and economic growth.

§ Commit to use and promote a common working frame for defining the big picture of what children and youth need, adding up efforts across systems, by community, population group. Continue to pursue short term “wins”, but place them within this overarching frame. § Plan to include overarching youth policy vision in their strategic plan.

§ Adopt a working frame sooner rather than later.
§ Aggressively promote the common working frame throughout the state through a range of public education and training opportunities targeted at policy makers, foundations, non-profits, researchers, media, and youth and community organizers. Will work intensively with CC and NM Forum to develop compatible frames that meet local realities and are consistent with child and youth development.
Cross-Cutting Coordinating Bodies Aligning Action Among and Between Policy-Makers, Non-Governmental Organizations and Youth § Children’s Cabinet developed, chaired by Lt. Governor, and consisting of the agency heads of the following departments: Children, Youth and Families Department, Corrections Department, Human Services Department, Labor department, Health Department, Department of Finance and Administration, Department of Economic Development, Department of Public Safety, State Agency on Aging and the Education Department (upon its establishment)
§ Health and Human Service Secretaries meet regularly.
§ Establishment of a Youth Advisory Council authorized.

§ Provide strong direction and leadership to CC, through a clear mandate and authority to tackle tasks such as those in this chart. Counter group inertia often evident in coordinating bodies (simply repackaging work that is already occurring; doing what is easiest rather than doing what creates the greatest leverage for positive change).
§ Plan and launch Youth Advisory Council, and consider using as a way to develop a parallel coordinating body among youth activists across the state. § NM Forum convenes non-profits, researchers and foundations concerned with children and youth issues.
§ Commitment to strategic planning process that focuses on what NMF members can do to promote goals and identify, link and leverage existing state and community capacity to implement strategies.

§ Create a more aggressive timeframe for getting through strategic planning. Use current round of funding proposals as an opportunity to refine and reinvigorate the NM Forum’s mission, mandate and strategies. Reassess who is/should be part of the Forum based on the tasks to be undertaken. Capitalize on” moving trains” across the state.

§ If there is a critical mass of youth organizing groups, seek ways to link to them and encourage them to create a coordinating body among themselves or join with the NM Forum. Will provide lessons learned from other states to recommend tasks for the coordinating bodies to undertake.
Staffing and Support § A staff person for the Cabinet is currently being sought. The Cabinet is considering opportunities to receive supports from the Network for Child Safety and the Forum for Youth Investment.

§ Allocate staff to plan, launch and support the Youth Advisory Council. Determine appropriate roles for consultants and TA providers. § NM Forum recently hired a staff person, and is seeking support from the Forum for Youth Investment. Will provide ongoing assistance to both the Cabinet and the NM Forum, providing content expertise and lessons from other states.
Youth Policy Portfolio Report
§ Youth Outcomes
§ Youth Options
§ Youth Budget
§ What Works
§ Policy Ratings
§ Recommendations § Children’s Cabinet charged with tracking indicators concerning children and their health, education, safety and economic growth.
§ Memorial passed to study out of school time opportunities

§ Commit to a timeline and outline (at least table of contents) for report. Begin by asking each department represented in the Children’s Cabinet to map out their work into the agreed-upon overarching frame, and then come together to view their collective efforts.
§ Track indicators of civic and cultural contributions, as well as the indicators listed above. Partner with the NM Forum and others to get non-public data and to draft sections of the report. § Commitment to mapping OST opportunities

§ Process to identify existing indicator reports being created by NMF members (e.g. NM Voices)
§ Seek partnerships with universities to achieve common template, increase analysis horsepower, ensure disaggregated data Will help outline report and provide in-depth feedback to drafts. Will draft sections requiring national perspective and examples as needed.
TASKS ACTIONS TAKEN/ACTIONS RECOMMENDED (in italics) ASSISTANCE OFFERED BY THE FORUM FOR YOUTH INVESTMENT
CHILDREN’S CABINET NEW MEXICO FORUM
Support Parallel Efforts at All Levels § Create incentives and support for local governments to forge parallel processes (e.g., Children’s Cabinets) and products (e.g., youth policy portfolio report), and to use compatible frames. § Create incentives and support for local non-governmental organizations to forge parallel processes (e.g., NM Forums) and products (e.g., youth policy portfolio report), and to use compatible frames. Will recommend ways to create incentives and provide support to localities. May partner with a limited number of localities as demonstrations for the state.
Communications Strategy § Engage governmental communications offices to devise strategy for publicizing the frames and work of the Children’s Cabinet. § Seek connections with media and others to publicize the frames and overarching policy agenda. Will advise communications consultants to ensure that messages are consistent with the “big picture” of young people’s needs
Political Strategy § Link Children’s Cabinet to Administration’s broader economic development goals

§ Work with political consultants and advisors to ensure that the work of the Children’s Cabinet is framed in a manner that advances the political aspirations of key champions § Link NM Forum to same broad goals.

§ Create “win-wins” so that child and youth champions are positioned for political success. Will advise political consultants to ensure that messages are consistent with the “big picture” of young people’s needs
Capacity Building Strategy § Various departments and agencies devote resources to training practitioners.

§ Seek ways to align training and technical assistance resources across departmental lines. Consider adopting universal standards for all people who work with youth, and universal training supports. Setting and topic specific standards and training should go above and beyond the core universals. § Commitment to training youth workers across the state.

§ Consider bringing together trainers and technical assistance providers from across settings and topics (teachers, youth workers, probation officers, etc.) to begin aligning thinking supports and practice. Will provide best available research on universal standards and capacity building strategies
Constituency Building Strategy § Commitment to coordinating, endorsing and participating in state listening tours, focus groups.

§ Use state tours as an opportunity to collect information, document views, and build constituencies. Bring the overarching frame into the meetings, as people to indicate their views of strengths and needs into it, and produce a report documenting feedback received in each category. Partner with the NM Forum to collect contact information from attendees and provide them current information on children and youth issues. § Commitment to identify and align youth and community engagement horsepower of NM Forum members, create and support ongoing, self-maintaining mechanisms for youth and community involvement that can be tapped by NMF and CC.

§ Host series of community forums across the state
§ Develop database and listserv capacity to track and build relationships with citizens concerned with child and youth issues across the state. Will help develop tools for capturing citizens’ views into a consistent frame. Will help outline and review reports of views expressed. Will provide NM Forum with content to provide to individuals on its mailing lists.
Funding Strategy § Commitment to developing and maintaining strong relationships with regional and national foundations and corporations interested in New Mexico, children, youth and families and public/private partnerships § Strong relationships with regional and national foundations and corporations interested in New Mexico, children, youth and families and public/private partnerships. Will leverage our connections with national funders to bring more resources to New Mexico.
Youth Involvement Strategy § Commitment to create a State Youth Advisory Council

§ Provide staffing, training and a small budget to the Youth Advisory Council. Charge them with (1) capturing the views and perspectives of youth across the state; starting by convening the various groups that already do similar work; (2) helping map the work of each department and agency into the overarching frame; and (3) bringing together the young people who are in youth advisory groups within state government departments and agencies. § Deep philosophical believe in the importance of youth involvement. NM Forum members involve young people in myriad ways.

§ Do not create “token” youth participation in the NM Forum. Instead, engage young people only in the task that could not be done well without young people. For example, work with young people to document the views of youth people across the state into the overarching frame. Will provide example of ways government agencies and organizations have successfully involved youth across the country.
APPENDIX C: THE FORUM FOR YOUTH INVESTMENT’S RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In addition to the partnerships with Maryland and California (discussed above), recent accomplishments include:

Developing Frames. One of the central challenges states face when forging overarching youth policy efforts is that it is difficult to categorize the wide range of import activities taking place across departmental lines. The Forum has developed and tested several simple yet powerful frames for articulating and advancing a coherent youth policy agenda.
Providing Strategic Consulting, Presentations and Trainings. The Forum has provided strategic advice to a number of states, meeting with key stakeholders and speaking at a number of state-level conferences and events. For example, the Forum spent two days in Iowa speaking to a conference of over 800 youth workers and policy makers, meeting with the Governor’s cabinet, and strategizing with the State Youth Development Task Force about ways to use the Forum’s frames to move policy.

Preparing for the Launch of States United For Youth – the Emerging Network of State Youth Policy Officials. A number of states the Forum has supported asked that the Forum establish a formal network to further publicize their work and to provide greater technical assistance. The Forum worked with these states to draft a proposal which is currently being shared with national and regional foundations. The formal launch is expected to occur in the Fall.
Leveraging Federal Support. The Forum (along with the W.T. Grant Foundation and the Kellogg Foundation) submitted joint recommendations to the White House Task Force For Disadvantaged Youth, urging them to build upon and support similar state-level efforts to coordinate youth policy efforts across departmental lines. The Forum also orchestrated a strong state presence at the federal government’s June 2002 National Youth Summit, and provided detailed counsel to the shapers of FYSB’s State Youth Development Collaboration Grant RFP. FYSB is currently exploring ways to ensure that it’s grantees have full access to the Forum’s expertise.

Leveraging Foundation Support. The Forum has worked to keep state government’s youth policy coordination effort on the agenda of leading national and regional foundations. In May 2002, the Forum invited leading state officials from Massachusetts and Iowa to meet with the Youth Development Funders Group to discuss state policy efforts and to explore possible partnerships. The Forum also advanced this agenda with regional funders groups (such as Connecticut’s Funders Connection, and California’s Bay Area Youth Development Funders Group).

Leveraging Support from National Organizations. The Forum has forged solid relationships with the National Governors Association (NGA), the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), Voices for America’s Children (formerly the National Association of Child Advocates), and the Center for the Study of Social Policy. Each of these organizations provide a range of resources and/or technical assistance to states; the Forum works closely with our partners to bring the maximum leverage and attention to the states it supports.

Publicizing Successful State Efforts and Lessons Learned. At the request of a number of states, the Forum produced State Youth Policy: Helping All Youth to Grow Up Fully Prepared and Fully Engaged to highlight the work of state coordinating bodies, and negotiated to have it distributed to all attendees of the Federal Government’s National Youth Summit (www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/respapers.htm#policy). To date, over 10,000 individuals have viewed and/or printed this document from the Forum’s Web-site. The Forum also produced Adding it Up: Taking Stock of Efforts to Improve State-Level Youth Policies (www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/respapers.htm), which summarizes state policy work from around the county and begins to look at how the combined activity adds up. The Forum also devoted an issue of its signature FYI Newsletter devoted to state policy (www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/resnews.htm). In addition to disseminating lessons learned in written form, the Forum has highlighted state youth policy work in numerous workshops, conferences and meetings. At the request of the Mott Foundation, the Forum has begun to produce a set of commentaries on research about expanded learning opportunities aimed at state and local policy makers. The Forum also sends a regular e-newsletter to over 200 state policy makers from 48 states, highlighting innovative state efforts and alerting them to potential funding opportunities