Building on the YEF Instituteâ??s intensive work with hundreds of cities over the past decade, The State of City Leadership for Children and Families highlights the progress that cities have made and the potential for future action in nine areas.

The publication was released October 13, 2009, before more than 350 municipal leaders attending the 2009 National Summit on Your Cityâ??s Families in Boston.

In June 2008, Governor Deval Patrick released his Education Action Agenda, a comprehensive strategic plan that charts the course for the next phase of education reform in Massachusetts. The Action Agenda set as a primary goal the creation of an integrated system of education to meet the learning needs of every student in the Commonwealth, thus providing all students with the supports and skills necessary to meet the stateâ??s rigorous educational standards, and to help them become successful and productive members of the workforce and their communities. Governor Patrick established the Child and Youth Readiness Cabinet (the Cabinet), comprised of the Secretariats of the state agencies, with primary responsibility for serving children, youth and families. In April 2009, Public Consulting Group (PCG) was retained to clarify the crossagency vision for a statewide integrated data sharing and reporting system as outlined by the Governor and the Readiness Cabinet, and to draft a strategic plan with actionâ?Ìoriented recommendations to help the Cabinet begin to make concerted, measurable efforts toward achieving its vision.

Connecticut's Dropout Crisis - This crisis not only ensures a life of poverty for too many of our young people but also is weakening our economy by depleting the workforce of capable employees.  It's also costing the government billions of dollars in social services and lost tax revenue. Realizing that improving dropout rates is a key to the area's economic success, Our Piece of the Pie, in conjunction with Capital Worforce Partners and with additional funding from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Connecticut Office of Workforce Competitiveness, commissioned a study to examine the problem. The study, conducted by Dr. Andrew Sum of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, examined the social and economic impact of high school dropouts. He presented his findings at the Governor's Dropout Summit on October 19. The numbers are staggering.

Prepared By: Joseph McLaughlin,  Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada - Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
Prepared for: Our Piece of the Pie, Hartford, Connecticut

Goodwill Industries calls upon key stakeholders -- including state and federal policymakers, judges, law enforcement officials, service providers (including local Goodwill agencies), educators, employers, and victims -- to come together to create an environment that will hold people accountable and support individuals with criminal backgrounds who want to reintegrate into their communities and make positive contributions.

One of the most powerful findings of the Economic Mobility Project's research to date has been the striking mobility gap between blacks and whites in America. This report explores one potentially important factor behind the black-white mobility gap: the impact of neighborhood poverty rates experienced during childhood. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the report focuses on blacks and whites born from 1955-1970, following them from childhood into adulthood. The first section of the paper investigates relative intergenerational mobility; whether neighborhood poverty in childhood impacts the ability of both black and white adults to move up or down the income ladder relative to the position their parents held. The second section investigates whether changes in neighborhood poverty rates experienced by black children affected their adult incomes, earnings, and wealth. Finally, the third section provides an overview of the possible policy implications of the results.

Author: Patrick Sharkey