Ohio Family and Children First (OFCF) has developed a comprehensive action plan to  align and coordinate data and resources for children and youth with the long term goal of improving outcomes over a range of areas, e.g. increase post-secondary education attainment and quality of life for families. OCCF is statutorily defined as the Governor’s Cabinet for children and families.

Three times in the past year and a half, the staff of the Forum for Youth Investment has had the opportunity to organize and facilitate panel presentations in which young people bring their voices to bear on the struggle of school reform.

As the youth development and out-of-school time fields expand and mature, practitioners, policy makers and researchers are increasingly rallying around the importance of assessing and improving program quality. A range of tools is now available to support these efforts.

In this edition of Forum Flash, get the details on the Search Institute's Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth 2009 Conference and why the Ready by 21 National Partnership is a lead sponsor.

States are struggling. Children’s lives, too often, are truly in the balance as states and localities decide where to make cuts, often sacrificing long-term investments to achieve short-term cost savings. And a new National League of Cities report, City Fiscal Conditions 2009, suggests that the situation will worsen over the next two years.