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Central Pennsylvania Youth in Transition Project (PAYT)

It is estimated that between 2006 and 2016, over 6,000 young adults in Central PA will have dropped out of school; and more than 1,600 youth will have aged out of foster care with a greater risk of dropping out or falling behind.  The PAYT project has joined service providers in a conversation about reconnecting these youth to successful education and employment outcomes.

Thank you for helping us make the Community Youth Forums

on December 4th and 5th successful events. 

About 120 individuals representing 60 agencies attended the youth forums to develop and enhance community partnerships to better serve dropouts and youth who have aged out of foster care.  To continue to support and encourage these community collaborations, the CPWDC is please to announced the availability of mini-grants.  Proposals for these grants are due January 16, 2009. 

For application materials for these mini-grants, please click here. 

Information from the Forum is now available electronically, please click here to access these materials. 

 

Local Research Grant Announcements

CPWDC is looking to fund research grants as a follow-up to the PAYT Research Report.  One grant will be awarded to administer a survey to dropouts and youth aging out of foster care and analyze the results. Another grant will be awarded to assess the capacity and accessibility to GED programs in the region as well as conduct a review of national, state and local models which connect GED programs to postsecondary and employment opportunities.  Click here to view these grant announcements.

The Central Pennsylvania Youth in Transition Project research is now complete and available for download.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to the research project.  We plan to share the results of this research with you at the upcoming Forums on December 4th and 5th. 

March 2008 Forum Information

Thank you for participating in the Community Youth Forum on March 12, 2008!  You were among 120 individuals representing 60 agencies.  Information from the Forum is now available electronically.  Click here to access these materials.    

       

              The PAYT Project at a Glance

Purpose:         

  • Explore strategies to reconnect Pennsylvania dropouts and youth aging out of foster care to high quality educational options earning a high school diploma, GED, or GED leading to postsecondary education credential and successful careers

  • Establish community partnerships which will examine the issues around improving the educational options and life outcomes for the large and growing numbers of these youth populations

Design:           

  • Community Partnership and Steering Committee comprised of stakeholders

  • Research team of local university faculty and staff

  • Coordinated by Lead Researcher, Research Coordinator, and CPWDC

Status:            

  • The Steering Committee convened in August 2007 to help define the issues surrounding drop outs and youth who have aged out of the foster care system

  • As of January 2008, research on these issues will commence among 5 local universities

  • A Community Youth Forum is scheduled for March 12, 2008 where youth service providers from around the region will hear about the project and potential impacts of this grant on Central PA

  • On March 12, 2008, about 120 youth service providers from nine counties attended the Community Youth Forum at the Front Street Station in Northumberland; participants learned about the project and the potential impacts on Central PA

Contact:          

  • Kate Lomax, CPWDC Youth Council Coordinator, 570.522.0600

 Overview

CPWDC has been awarded a grant by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry to carry out a Pennsylvania Youth in Transition (PAYT) project.  The intent of the project is to explore strategies to reconnect Pennsylvania dropouts and youth aging out of foster care to high quality educational options earning a high school diploma, GED, or GED leading to postsecondary education credential and successful careers.  PAYT is designed to establish community partnerships which will examine the issues around improving the educational options and life outcomes for the large and growing numbers of these youth populations. 

The purpose of this PAYT Grant in Central Pennsylvania is to develop a regional strategy that is based on sound and defensible academic research that will guide the region in its efforts to re-engage youth that have dropped out of school and/or who have aged out of the foster care system and have not achieved a level of measurable self-sufficiency.  The regional strategy will be designed to re-engage these youth in a manner that will allow them to complete high school/earn a GED and move towards gainful employment and/or post secondary education that will result in gainful employment.  The regional strategy includes efforts to link all existing resources, identify gaps in the resources structure and define possible solutions to fill the existing gaps in the region.  The strategy, through the research, will attempt to adapt best practice models that have proven effective in reengaging this population.  The project will culminate in a series of implementation guides and tools for community stakeholders.

 The key components of CPWDC’s local PAYT project are as follows:

  • Establish a Community Partnership that builds on the relationships already in place among many of the youth serving organizations in the Central Region.  The project is designed to strengthen collaboration, improve opportunities for youth in transition, and create connection between the community and the expertise of the local universities. A Steering Committee has been convened to help guide the research.  Community Partnership members will be drawn from the nine counties of the Central Region and represent stakeholders from the following:

 

K-12 Education

Alternative Education

Adult Education

Career and Technical Education

Postsecondary Education

Employers

Juvenile Justice

Child Welfare and Social Services

PHEAA

PA CareerLink

Community Based Youth Organizations

  • Develop a research team comprised of appropriate faculty and staff from the Central Region’s postsecondary institutions.  The purpose of this work is two-fold: 1) to assist in providing solid research support to address the issues related to dropouts and youth aging out of foster care, and 2) to strengthen the connection between these institutions and the K-12 system and other community partners that are working with these targeted populations. The work of the research team will address the four key areas identified in the PAYT grant guidelines:

 

  1. Capacity to gather, examine and use information to help inform and guide efforts to improve outcomes for disconnected youth.

  2. Analysis of the policy and funding environment at the local and state level to identify barriers that impede systemic and equitable school reform regarding the needs of disconnected youth.

  3. Supply of quality educational options for disconnected youth.

  4. Building relationships between and mobilizing support of key partners and stakeholders.

Initial outcomes desired by the project include:                                                   

  • Develop a formal mechanism for regular and meaningful interaction among systems committed to serving youth, particularly disconnected youth.

  • Identify opportunities for sustainable models to effectively re-engage the targeted youth populations.

  • Create a sustainable model for exploring other urgent educational and community issues through access to the research capacity of the postsecondary system and institutionalizing a linkage to the K-12 system.

Specifically, by June 30, 2008, the project will result in:

  • An academically-sound research report addressing the four key areas identified in the grant guidelines;

  • An action plan detailing roles and resources of community partnership members;

  • Development and distribution of an interactive tool to showcase the research findings to various constituencies; and

  • A regional community partnership in-service day on best practices for re-engagement and strategies for preventing future youth from similar disconnected activities.

 Click here for a printable version of this overview.

   

 

1610 Industrial Blvd., Suite 500 A, Lewisburg, PA  17837  |  570.522.0600  |  570.522.0805 Fax