May 16, 2012

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; KaBOOM!; Public/Private Ventures;

Presents evaluation findings about the impact of KaBOOM's projects to plan for and build playgrounds with community members on leadership and skills development and community building and, in turn, the potential for sustainable community engagement.

Mar 01, 2007

Public/Private Ventures;

Call to Action chronicles how individuals, community organizations, faith institutions, businesses and officials mobilized to build partnerships to address escalating numbers of ex-prisoners returning to their communities. The three cities highlighted in this report, Jacksonville, FL; Memphis, TN; and Washington, D.C., were pioneers in responding to the nation's prisoner reentry crisis. They developed impressive programs and eventually joined P/PV's Ready4Work initiative.In the report's foreword, P/PV President Fred Davie and Vice President for Public Policy and Community Partnerships Renata Cobbs Fletcher argue: "The collective experience of Ready4Work sites highlights the need for more collective and integrated approaches to prisoner reentry -- across cities, regions and states; public and private resources and funding streams need to be redirected, pooled and put to use in more strategic, cost-effective and outcomes-driven efforts. Research findings that show promise for specific program strategies must be at the center of these partnerships, guiding dialogue as well as the design of initiatives and program evaluations."

Dec 01, 2002

Public/Private Ventures;

From 1995 through 2002, P/PV worked with six neighborhoods around the country to develop and institute a framework of "core concepts" to guide youth programming for the nonschool hours. The goal was to create programming that would involve a high proportion of each neighborhood's several thousand adolescents. This report summarizes the basic lessons that emerged from this Community Change for Youth Development (CCYD) initiative. The lessons address such topics as the usefulness of a "core concepts" approach; the dos and don'ts of involving neighborhood residents in change initiatives; the role of research; the role of youth; and the capacity of neighborhood-wide approaches to attract high-risk youth.

Jan 30, 2002

Public/Private Ventures;

Charting New Territory is an examination of implementation of the Workforce Investment Act through the eyes of public officials in five cities. Though the strategies being pursued in each city vary, the report documents local officials' shared concerns about the difficulty of getting genuine cooperation from mandated partners, the challenges posed by WIA's data collection and performance requirements, and the frustration inherent in a transition from one system to another, while continuing to provide services. It concludes with several lessons on what will be needed to make WIA more effective.

May 30, 2001

Public/Private Ventures;

States of Change documents efforts by state policymakers and local practitioners to devise useful approaches to helping low-income job seekers stay employed and begin advancing. It draws, in part, from our experiences working on these issues since 1997 with five states -- Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma and Florida -- as well as on examples and lessons in several other states. In general, states are trying a number of retention strategies, but few have been tested. Therefore, we expect that many strategies discussed will soon be modified or replaced with new approaches. We hope that States of Change encourages this process of testing and innovation by providing a sense of what is being tried and learned around the country, and what challenges remain.

Dec 30, 1999

Public/Private Ventures;

This report describes the goals and program elements of P/PV's State Workforce Policy Initiative, a five-state initiative designed to develop effective employment retention and skills-upgrading strategies to assist Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other low income job seekers in earning enough to move out of poverty. While no two strategies are alike, each state's strategy takes into account the needs of local employers, as well as the skills barriers and record of poor job retention present among so many entering the workforce. The report describes each state's individual strategy and recaps the key issues faced in the work first policy climate.

Sep 30, 1999

Public/Private Ventures;

School-based mentoring is one of the most promising of several new mentoring approaches. This study explores some of the strengths, challenges and potential contributions of this approach by describing two well-run school-based programs. It describes characteristics of the mentors and youth involved, program practices and potential benefits to youth, and discusses implications for practitioners and directions for future research. Findings suggest that well-run school-based mentoring programs are likely to be a powerful intervention for many disadvantaged youth.

Mar 15, 1998

Public/Private Ventures;

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been given to nonschool hours as a vehicle for providing some of the basic supports -- caring adult attention and guidance, career development, and opportunities to engage in positive learning and enrichment activities -- that encourage positive youth development. This report examines the assumptions that youth with higher levels of support are more successful in school, work and their communities, and that youth in moderately poor urban communities lack adequate supports. Community-wide surveys completed in 1996 in three communities -- Austin, Savannah, and St. Petersburg (Florida) -- found a discouraging decline in supports and opportunities as youth get older. From 15 to 25 percent of youth 18 years and older were not engaged in any positive structured activities, had very few adults in their lives, and were not working.