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To encourage and support Cuyahoga County youth, the Cleveland Foundation is working with a number of public and private funders and organizations to create a comprehensive youth development initiative.

There are five working goals for the initiative:

• All children and youth live in a safe, stable, and nurturing family environment and have ongoing relationships with caring adults.
• All children and youth are healthy and protected from conditions that would impede their development.
• All children and youth attend school ready to learn and have marketable skills through effective education and necessary supports to achieve their maximum potential.
• All children and youth are provided opportunities that promote positive choices and behaviors, the ability to give back to the community, and employment experiences as they successfully transition into adulthood.
• Our community is mobilized and committed to the success of its children, youth, and their families.

To assist in achieving these goals, the Cleveland Foundation staff has committed to the following framework:

• Build community support for change. Youth must be a priority and all local stakeholders – faith-based organizations, media outlets, elected officials, local businesses, existing youth services providers, etc should be involved.
• Collect and analyze data to inform decisions. A complete community youth assessment to discover the most problematic areas and to discover where the current system fails will be conducted.
• Optimize existing systems. Rather than attempt to rebuild it, fix the flaws in the current system and optimize resources to best serve the needs of youth.
• Increase opportunities for youth ages 6-18. Younger people are asking for more activities and programs to get them involved.
• Develop an outcome and accountability system. The community will be able to give its input as the initiative progresses.

For more information, listen to the podcasts featuring Lisa Bottoms of the Cleveland Foundation featured in the links on the left. Alternatively, you can view the presentation regarding the Youth Development Initiative