Ready News: June 4, 2015

An education expert reflects on her circuitous path to success, which included overcoming childhood struggles with depression and drugs. Stephanie Krauss notes that the road to readiness is not always straight; it's often littered with on- and off-ramps that we must help young people negotiate.

In eighth grade I was in honors classes and played a sport every season. I took French, played in the orchestra, sang in the ensemble and held a lead role in the school play. I enjoyed school, did well, felt engaged and connected.

Then over the summer I stumbled into depression. I was confused, took it out on my body and started struggling with a hard-to-kick eating disorder.

That fall, instead of starting high school with my classmates, I entered an eating disorder clinic at our local hospital. For five months I attended an outpatient program instead of school. Academics, athletics, friends, arts and music were all ripped away. Continue reading.

What are some of the competencies and practices schools can use to help fill gaps and close traps for youth on the path to readiness? This is just one of the big questions that will be addressed in the upcoming thought leader discussion between Bryan Joffe, director of education and youth development at AASA, and Stephanie Krauss, senior fellow at the Forum. Listen in as Karen Pittman interviews these two young changemakers who are tackling, in complementary ways, the question of what it takes to get youth development practices embedded into the DNA of schools.

June 9, 2 p.m. ET 

The Forum for Youth Investment and Collective Impact Forum are teaming up again to help communities effectively carry out collective impact strategies. This three-day institute provides a survey of five key steps in collaborative work and how these steps put partnerships on a clear path to improving lives.

This institute is designed for leaders, staff and volunteers of partnerships working to improve community conditions and outcomes. The institute is particularly useful for organizations that provide support to overarching leadership councils, provider partnerships, prevention coalitions and neighborhood groups. Participants are strongly encouraged to send community teams representing multiple partnership members.

June 23-25, Seattle, Wash.

Want to learn how to train your afterschool staff to increase the quality of their work? The Weikart Center's Youth Work Methods Training of Trainers course teaches staff how to deliver the Youth Work Methods courses, which empower direct staff with tools to increase the quality of their instruction and boost youth engagement.

The course consists of four weeks of distance learning, three days of live training in Ypsilanti, Mich., and one week of distance follow-up. The registration deadline is June 12. 

While childhood obesity is a concern for a growing number of parents, many probably don't think about the food that their children get at their afterschool programs. The latest issue of New Directions for Youth Development explores the effect that afterschool programs can have on healthy eating and physical activity. The special issue of the journal is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National AfterSchool Association.