By Karen Pittman, April 2006 

The British Government recently made an incredible announcement: It apologized for only managing to reduce child poverty 17 percent over the past five years rather than 25 percent — the progress needed to be on a straight path towards the government’s stated goal of eliminating child poverty by 2020. Officials have promised to redouble their efforts. Sometimes it’s difficult to live on this side of the pond.

Public administrators in the United Kingdom don’t have all the answers — they are trying the same mix of supports that we have used in this country — employment training, job creation, wage subsidies, health benefits, child care, improved education. But they do have all eyes on them. Prime Minister Tony Blair has declared child poverty a travesty and made the elimination of it a bold public idea that will outlast his administration. Along the way, he has restored many individual’s faith in the power of public officials to set forth an “actionable vision” of that presses beyond the status quo, galvanizes public and private commitments and reminds all of us that we can and should do more for the common good.

The story on this side of the ocean provides a study of contrasts. Child poverty is up 12 percent since 2000 — a number that translates to 13 million children. Enacted and proposed tax and budget policies are reducing discretionary domestic spending to dangerously low levels. And the federal commitment to ensure that “no child is left behind” while galvanizing, is too narrow in its message (focusing only on education), too stringent in its measures and too stingy with its monies. The burden of progress has been pushed down to the states without sufficient funding or flexibility to foster innovation.

The story has bright spots however. Elected officials have not declared a war on child poverty. But they are, in increasing numbers, declaring campaigns against inefficiency, fragmentation, [a word that means acting on a whim, changing directions frequently] and short-sightedness. And they are stepping out to take public responsibility, as Blair did, not just for trying to do more for children, youth and families, but for planning to make progress against clearly defined goals.

Supporting state and local policy makers’ efforts has become more than a full time job at the Forum as we work with their national membership organizations to respond to the building interest.  Here is a quick sampling of last month’s events:

• The National League of Cities is encouraging all communities to do “youth master planning” — a process that, according to NLC, “create(s) the foundation for an engagement of all groups working on youth-related issues — so they do more — and do it more strategically. Six of these communities gathered in early April to report on their progress and the Forum was there to listen and learn. The Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board, one of the country’s oldest local coordinating bodies and one of the six NLC technical assistance sites is using the Forum’s Ready by 21 framework to rejuvenate their commitment and guide their assessment and planning processes.
• The National Governors Association and the Forum are supporting the growing network of Children’s Cabinet Directors. Directors from eight of the country’s 15 existing children’s cabinets met last month in New Mexico to discuss their progress in coordinating resources, collaborating on strategies, and convening key players in improving outcomes for children and youth and learn about the exciting work going on in New Mexico, where, in the span of three years, they have established a robust Children’s Cabinet  that has communicated a set of public goals, created  cross-departmental legislative priorities, established a statewide Youth Alliance whose members work directly with the Children’s Cabinet secretaries, and developed an online reporting system for creating a true child- and youth-centered children’s budget — one that reports on expenditures not just by department, but looks at cross-departmental expenditures by population group (e.g., early childhood), by child and youth outcome (e.g., health), and by the type of supports and services provided (e.g., counseling).
• The National Conference of State Legislatures and the Forum recently co-hosted an audio-conference where legislators and policy directors from Kentucky and Connecticut shared their progress since the first Policy Institute in creating and moving comprehensive youth policy through their statehouses. This was the fourth in a series of audio-conferences the Forum has co-sponsored with NCSL. And teams of legislators and executive staff members from eight more states will come together in Portland for two days in June for the second Youth Policy Institute where they will hear from state and national experts about how to create youth policy action plans.

The news isn’t that leaders are meeting. Meetings are a dime a dozen. It is that they are using these public gatherings as a way to see and feel the movement — to learn from their peers, caucus with their teams, retool their efforts and set the stage for making stronger public commitments back home.

And all of these leaders have their eyes on Capitol Hill, where the Senate is gearing up to vote on the Federal Youth Coordination Act, which is currently being reviewed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The Federal Youth Coordination act (S.409) creates a federal youth development council of all the secretaries of all major departments, along with young people and representatives from the field, charged with developing an overarching youth policy plan. Introduced by Osborne in the House and Coleman in the Senate, the Federal Youth Coordination Act has bipartisan co-sponsors, and was one of the few pieces of youth legislations that passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote (353–62!)

From community centers to city halls to state capitols to where we sit in D.C., it’s enough to make you realize that momentum is building. It’s happening from the bottom up and from the outside in, but perhaps most importantly, it’s happening across-the-board. As leaders and decision makers learn the consequences of inefficient planning and fragmented solutions, and as those of us in the field work harder to provide them with the tools they need to think and plan big, we might produce our own dramatic results on this side of the ocean after all.

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