Capital Region Ready by 21 Coalition sets goals and course of action

by Jay Schenirer
Consultant, Capital Region Ready by 21 Coalition

Imagine a community where all young people are safe, have caring adults in their lives, are doing well in school and have a marketable skill, have access to basic needs and health services, and have opportunities to lead and give back to their community. Although this may be a reality for some of our youth, it is not a reality for many.

National research tells us that only 4 in 10 youth are doing well by age 20 in terms of attending college, healthy habits and volunteering or being engaged in civic activities. According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, in Sacramento County 5,000 youth are in foster care, between 30 percent and 50 percent of youth will not graduate high school, 66 percent of 11th-graders report trying alcohol, and less than 61 percent of juniors in public schools report having a high level of meaningful opportunities to participate.

To address these challenges, and with leadership from the city and county, school districts, neighborhood and community-based organizations, and Sacramento philanthropy, we have created the Capital Region Ready by 21 Coalition. The coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of adults and youth dedicated to helping our region make sure all young people are Ready by 21™ ― ready for college, work and life. The coalition’s core beliefs, based on youth development research, are: everyone in the community has a role to play in developing youth; all youth deserve ongoing nurturing and support from caring adults and peers; all youth deserve high-quality, meaningful opportunities for involvement; all youth deserve to have challenging and engaging learning experiences; and all youth should be seen as valuable resources in the community.

To make these beliefs a reality, we have established four goals, each with accompanying implementation strategies:

• All capital-region youth maintain a quality of life that includes nurturing, safe neighborhoods; schools; housing; nutritious food; and health care.

• All capital-region youth are educated in a system that leads to high school graduation and post-secondary education.
• All capital-region youth are prepared to enter the workforce with the necessary skills to compete in the 21st-century economy.
• All capital-region youth are civically engaged and have the opportunity, knowledge and skills to positively impact their families and communities.

These goals require that young people have the supports, opportunities and services needed to prosper and contribute to where they live, learn, work, play and make a difference.

The coalition has embarked on a course of action that includes:

• An outreach effort to enlist government, school districts, business and nonprofits to sign a compact that includes the goals and strategies, and commits each organization to an annual reporting on how they are progressing on their strategies. The coalition will host a community convening around the signing of the compact and enlistment of organizational commitment to children and youth in the early spring.

• The development and dissemination of a resource guide to support parents in ensuring that their children are successful.
• Outreach and advocacy training for region youth to ensure they have an articulate voice in the development and implementation of policy.
• Discussions with other youth-serving policy bodies, such as the Sacramento County Children’s Coalition, city and county youth commissions and Sacramento City Office of Youth Development, to ensure our efforts are aligned and build on one another. Our goal over time is to reach out to all entities in the region that are interested in the success of our children.

If you would like to learn more about the RB21 Coalition and its activities, please contact us at Readyby21cr@yahoo.com.