Reconnecting Youth – A Grand Strategy a la Early Childhood?

Andrew O. Moore

This post was written by Andrew O. Moore, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Youth, Education and Families at the National League of Cities.

What this country needs is a grand strategy to mobilize resources, policy, and public will to reengage 5.8 million disconnected youth in education, jobs, and civic life. Grand strategy is likely what the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) and Campaign for Youth envisioned in their founding moments some 10 years ago.

Could the October 1 gathering of the Opportunity Youth Network provide a venue to elaborate a refreshed grand strategy? Many YTFG and Campaign for Youth members will attend.


When it comes to scale and strategy, those of us putting shoulders to the wheel to reengage disconnected youth could learn a thing or two from the high-momentum movement to universalize high-quality early childhood education (ECE) in the US. Recent issues of The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Education Week provide insight about the elements of a truly grand strategy. Thus, for disconnected youth, if we were to emulate the early childhood ed movement, we would include or put into place at least the following pieces:

• Research and evaluation that establishes a highly positive return on investments in reengagement. It is difficult to underestimate the value of a “go-to” statistic such as the $8 benefit for every $1 invested promulgated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

• Prominent non-traditional advocates in the forefront of reengagement advocacy. ECE campaigners successfully put facts and figures into the hands of and mobilized business and government leaders, drawing from sources such as the Federal Reserve and Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman. Relatively unimpeachable sources matter.

• Major national foundation commitments. To paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, “$180 million here, $500 million there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.” These are the levels of commitment at which philanthropic funding for ECE has compounded over the years. We need first one, then several national foundations to latch onto reengaging disconnected youth as a first-order, high-dollar priority. Again drawing on the ECE experience, this level of private support builds proverbial capacity in the field as a precondition for sparking state and local government action, and justifying additional federal government support.

• Federal policy at scale, widespread. Noting levels of funding and reach as we mark the 50th anniversary of Great Society programs suggests the order of magnitude change to which we must aspire. Head Start funding stands at $7.6 billion, with 1,700 grantee sites and 1.1 million participants. By comparison, Job Corps stands at $1.5 billion, with 125 campuses and some 60,000 participants.

We may have pieces of some grand strategy elements in place in the disconnected youth field, and we may have movement in the right direction in others. Let’s assess where we stand, and what we need to do next. ECE advocates note that progress to the current point of high momentum has built over 20 years. We may need a similar long view.