The Ready by 21 Challenge

Ready by 21 is a strategy that helps communities improve the odds that all youth will be ready for college, work and life. Ready by 21 meets leaders where they are, challenges them to think and work differently, and helps them progress further and faster to deliver results for youth.

This webinar will provide a basic overview of definitions of readiness, research on the number and percentages of youth who are 'ready', connections between individual indicators and overall readiness, and research on the types of supports youth need in order to be ready.

Ready by 21 isn’t a program or a campaign or even an initiative. It is a challenge to all who care about children and youth to think differently – to learn a different way to approach all of the tasks associated with trying to manage, make or measure change at any level from the classroom to the capitol – so that they can act differently.

Please find below notes from America's Youth Councils Network call on December 14, 2009.  Also below is the agenda, participant list, and Capitol Hill 1-pager from the 2nd Annual Convening held in Washington, DC on October 25 & 26, 2009. 

Now more than ever, every young person needs to be ready for college, work and life. Unfortunately, too few are, even though every community and state has dozens if not hundreds of programs, plans, policies and campaigns in place created by leaders like you who are trying to make a difference.

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.