City Coordinating Entities

The Forum for Youth Investment, working in collaboration with NLC, recently launched the Tennessee Cities Challenge to help local policymakers develop a shared and actionable vision for youth in their communities.  Through this initiative, 5-7 selected communities in Tennessee will receive training to implement the principles of Ready by 21® – a set of innovative strategies that helps communities and states make a measurable difference in the lives of children and youth.

The YEF Institute and the Forum for Youth Investment sponsored an hour-long webinar that introduced city officials, senior municipal staff and community partners to Ready by 21 – a set of innovative strategies that helps communities improve the odds that all children and youth will be ready for college, work and life.
Recording | PowerPoint slides

The YEF Institute and the Foundation Strategy Group recently sponsored a 90 minute webinar on “Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth through Collective Impact.”  The webinar explored how municipal leaders, staff and partners can maximize results by better coordinating and aligning their efforts to improve outcomes for children and youth.
Recording | PowerPoint slides

On April 20-21, 2011 mayors, senior city staff and United Way leaders from more than 30 cities gathered in Alexandria, Va., to discuss effective city-United Way partnerships for child well-being and two key national initiatives: the Mayors’ Action Challenge for Children and Families and the Campaign for the Common Good. 

Cross-system teams from six cities convened in Hartford, Conn., in April 2011 to deepen city strategies to reengage disconnected youth — 16-24 year-olds who are out of school and out of work, including many who are “aging out” of public care systems. The YEF Institute organized the meeting as part of its Municipal Leadership for Disconnected Youth initiative, which is made possible by the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.  

In March 2011, Cities of Service announced that ten cities launched efforts to strategically engage volunteers to address pressing needs in their communities. All ten cities are recipients of Cities of Service Leadership Grants, funded jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The two-year grants enable cities to hire Chief Service Officers to work closely with mayors to develop and implement service strategies.

The YEF Institute's State of City Leadership for Children and Families report, published in Oct. 2009, describes various city offices or departments for children, youth, and families, as well as intermediary organizations that play similar roles around coordination, advocacy, strategic planning, capacity-building, and evaluation.
Full report (PDF) | Local infrastructure for children, youth and families chapter (PDF)

In recent months, mayor's offices and city departments focused on children, youth and families in Nashville, Tenn.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Mountain, View, Calif. have moved forward in developing comprehensive youth master plans.
Nashville Children and Youth Master Plan | Grand Rapids Youth Master Plan | Denver Youth Agenda (PDF) | Mountain View Youth Action Plan (PDF) | Berkeley 2020 Vision

The YEF Institute's first-ever report on The State of City Leadership for Children and Families identifies the nation's most cutting-edge city strategies to help children and families thrive.  Several chapters highlight the broad range of innovations and trends in municipal leadership around developing and sustaining a local infrastucture for children, youth, and families. 
Full report (PDF) | Local infrastructure for children and families chapter (PDF) | Youth in transition chapter (PDF) | Youth violence prevention chapter (PDF)

This document highlights the various ways in which cities have provided coordination and collaboration among agencies serving young people and their families. The document focuses on mayor's offices for children, youth, and families, coordinating entities for community centers, interagency coordinating councils, nonprofit intermediaries, city departments, and local task forces.

This strategy paper highlights comprehensive, citywide gang prevention initiatives in San Jose, San Bernardino, and Santa Rosa, Calif.  These strategies are derived from lessons that emerged from the first year of the California Cities Gang Prevention Network.

The platform identifies the "essential infrastructure" needed for sustained progress on behalf of children, youth, and families, and offers a menu of ideas and action steps that cities of any size can take in each of seven issue areas. 

This agenda booklet offers policy and program options, as well as a broad range of action steps for local officials seeking new ways of doing business that will lead to better outcomes for children, families, and their neighborhoods.

More tools and resources on city coordinating entities

Join a YEF Institute Peer Network

Looking for ways to learn from and share ideas with city officials in other communities? The YEF Institute's peer networks provide exciting forums for discussing key local challenges and opportunities. Current networks include:

Afterschool Policy Advisors Network (APAN) | Early Care and Education City Network | Education Policy Advisors Network (EPAN) | Family Economic Success Network (FES) | Municipal Network on Disconnected Youth (MNDY) | Municipal Network for Combating Obesity (MNCO) | Youth Participation Advisors Network (YPAN)

Network members receive periodic e-mail updates, invitations to special conference calls and events, and other opportunities to interact with peers and colleagues from across the nation. 
Subscribe to one or more peer networks

The Forum for Youth Investment, working in collaboration with NLC, recently launched the Tennessee Cities Challenge to help local policymakers develop a shared and actionable vision for youth in their communities.  Through this initiative, 5-7 selected communities in Tennessee will receive training to implement the principles of Ready by 21® – a set of innovative strategies that helps communities and states make a measurable difference in the lives of children and youth.

NLC and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) have initiated a network of 13 major cities in California to combat gang violence and victimization.  The California Cities Gang Prevention Network focuses on building broad-based, cross-system teams to develop successful policies and practices that interweave prevention, intervention, enforcement and a community's "moral voice" as an alternative to prison-only solutions.

Supported by the MetLife Foundation, this project helped six cities - Charleston, S.C.; Lakewood, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Lexington, Ky.; Portland, Ore.; and Grand Rapids, Mich. - implement comprehensive plans for children and youth.  

Through the MetLife Foundation City-Schools Youth Planning Initiative, the YEF Institute offered technical assistance to six cities to help them develop youth master plans.  The selected cities included Charleston, S.C.; Des Moines, Iowa; Diamond Bar, Calif.; Edmond, Okla.; Lakewood, Ohio;  and Minneapolis, Minn.