Bank On Cities: Connecting Residents to the Financial Mainstream (2011)
This toolkit provides municipal leaders with a step-by-step guide for launching "Bank On" initiatives that help working families avoid high-cost check cashing and other fringe financial services. 

Preventing Gang Violence and Building Communities Where Young People Thrive (2010)
This toolkit draws upon lessons learned over three years from the California Cities Gang Prevention Network, a 13-city network sponsored in collaboration with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency to identify strategies for reducing gang violence and victimization. 

Creating a Youth Master Plan (2008)
This action kit offers tips and advice for the development of a city-schools youth master plan to more effectively coordinate services, identify and address unmet needs, and make better choices in allocating resources.  

Helping Families Achieve Financial Stability (2008)
This action kit focuses on steps that city officials can take to help families avoid debt and predatory lending, save and build assets, and achieve long-term financial stability.

More YEF Institute action kits and toolkits

Educational Alignment for Young Children: Profiles of Local Innovation (2012)
This case study report highlights an emerging city strategy for ensuring that more young children are poised for educational success: the alignment of early care and education programs with K-12 education systems. The report identifies five cities that are on the leading edge of efforts to create a seamless educational pipeline for children ages 0-8. Innovative alignment strategies in Boston, Hartford, San Antonio, San José and Seattle aim to ensure that more children are succeeding in school and reading at grade level by the end of third grade.

Expanding Options: City Roles in Creating High School Alternatives for Struggling Students (2010)
This report draws upon lessons learned from a YEF Institute project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in which five cities increased the choices available to students who struggle in traditional high school settings or are at risk for dropping out.

Community Wellness: Comprehensive City-School Strategies to Reduce Childhood Obesity (2010)
Published by the YEF Institute and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this report features the experiences of six communities where city and school district leaders partnered in the development of community-wide wellness plans.

Combating Poverty: Emerging Strategies from the Nation's Cities (2008)
This report highlights local poverty reduction strategies from 13 cities across the nation. The survey responses compiled in the report demonstrate how municipal leaders are well-positioned to lead citywide initiatives to reduce poverty.

Setting the Stage for New High Schools: Municipal Leadership in Supporting High School Alternatives (2007)
Published with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this report outlines seven key policy conditions that facilitate the expansion of alternatives and options for dropouts and other students who struggle in traditional high school settings.

More YEF Institute case studies and lessons learned reports

Collecting and Using Information to Strengthen Citywide Out-of-School Time Systems (2011)
Published with support from The Wallace Foundation, this strategy guide developed by the YEF Institute and the Harvard Family Research Project highlights six strategies for collecting and using data to assess and improve local afterschool programs.

Demonstrating Return on Investment Through Evaluation: Recommendations From the Field (2011)
This report synthesizes the key findings on the utility of evaluation for California Cities Gang Prevention Network sites and provides an overview of the fundamental principles to consider when developing an evaluation of a comprehensive gang and youth violence prevention initiative.

Fully Incorporating Prevention in Comprehensive Youth Violence Reduction Strategies (2011)
Within a comprehensive violence prevention strategy, pursuing and sustaining preventive efforts to minimize future violence well in advance typically poses the greatest challenge for municipal leaders. This action guide, published as part of the California Cities Gang Prevention Network initiative, highlights strategies, action steps and existing city approaches to prevention.

Evaluating Comprehensive Strategies to Reduce Gang-Related Violence (2011)
This action guide, published as part of the California Cities Gang Prevention Network initiative, highlights strategies and action steps for evaluating comprehensive gang violence prevention efforts.

Reducing Gang Violence through Reentry Services (2011)
The risk of recidivism is extremely high for the growing numbers of formerly incarcerated people are released from prison, jail, or other correctional facilities. This action guide, published as part of the California Cities Gang Prevention Network initiative, highlights strategies and action steps for delivering effective reentry services, particularly to gang-affiliated individuals

Authentic Youth Civic Engagement: A Guide for Municipal Leaders (2010)
Published with support from the Surdna Foundation, this guide offers practical tools for promoting meaningful youth participation in local government.

Promoting School Readiness by Improving Family, Friend and Neighbor Care Municipal Action Guide (2010)
This guide highlights steps that city leaders can take to connect family, friend and neighbor (FFN) caregivers with the information, resources and support needed to promote early learning and healthy child development.

More YEF Institute strategy guides

Banking On Opportunity: A Scan of the Evolving Field of Bank On Initiatives (2011)
NLC has prepared a new report under contract with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and CFED tracing the growth of the Bank On model within the broader financial access field and examining the current landscape of Bank On programs.

Municipal Leadership for Afterschool: Citywide Approaches Spreading across the Country (2011)
Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, this NLC report highlights a growing trend in communities nationwide: the emergence of comprehensive, citywide afterschool systems for children and youth. The report identifies 27 cities that are among the most advanced in their efforts to coordinate afterschool opportunities and shows how these efforts are yielding concrete academic and public safety improvements.

Publicly-Funded Jobs: An Essential Strategy for Reducing Poverty and Economic Stress Throughout the Business Cycle (2010)
This paper - coauthored by Clifford M. Johnson, executive director of the YEF Institute; Amy Rynell, director of the National Transitional Jobs Network; and Melissa Young, associate director of the National Transitional Jobs Project - makes the case for using public-service employment (PSE) and transitional jobs programs to combat economic recession and advance long-term workforce development goals. The paper was originally presented at an Urban Institute conference on Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA held in January 2010.

InstaPoll on Youth Curfews (2005)
This 2005 NLC poll of local officials in 436 cities provides data on how many cities enforce youth curfews, and their views on the effectiveness of curfews in fighting juvenile crime, truancy, and gang violence. The poll also offers a comparison with survey results from 2003, 2001, and 1999.

Strengthening Families in America's Cities: A Survey on Municipal Conditions, Policies, and Resources for Children and Families (2003)
The report finds that cities are constrained in efforts to support children and families by tight fiscal conditions and that cities' greatest strengths in meeting the needs of children and families are in recreation and elementary through high school education.

Strengthening Families in America's Cities: Early Childhood Development (2003)
Among the findings are that early learning opportunities are seen as critical needs in cities; four in ten city officials dedicate funding to early childhood; city leaders believe their cities have a stake in early childhood success; and local officials strongly support federal policies benefiting families with young children.

Leaving Young Workers Behind (2003)
This report by Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies highlights how over the long term young men are facing falling earnings and how fewer high school students are able to gain a foothold in the job market.