Learn more about the network and register now to get started with the Ready By 21 approach.
Learn more about the network and register now to get started with the Ready By 21 approach.
We recommend you review the Bolder Actions toolkit, then explore the four standards within this Building Block for Effective Change:
Bold: Mirriam-Webster defines it as “showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous.” By following the Ready by 21 Building Blocks, you’ve seen the importance of being bigger, broader, better. That isn’t just for alliterative effect; it’s to challenge you to go one step further.
Healthy behavior, staying in school, problem-solving skills – these are among the outcomes we all want to see in our young people. It is always encouraging to be able to point to a new mentoring initiative, a great after-school program or a really innovative school, but to achieve community- and state-wide impact, you need to do something bigger. You need to make high-quality interactions between young people and adults routine.
Do you ever feel like well-intentioned people around you are working hard but, to borrow a cliché, it looks like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? Sometimes, the left hand even holds the right hand down.
In times of funding cuts or a crisis involving youth and youth services, you can count on this: Loud voices will demand better supports for young people. That’s laudable. But demanding higher quality supports for young people should not be relegated to crises. To achieve long-term, systemic change, that demand has to become part of the norm.
We’ve all heard youth and parents voice their opinions at public gatherings – a youth summit, a school board meeting, a protest. That’s admirable, but what changed because of their involvement?