Youth Policy Institute

The Green Team will revitalize and activate MacArthur Park in Central Los Angeles using a holistic, community-based approach to improving public safety. A team of local, at-risk youth will lead efforts to reclaim the space and partner with park maintenance and local businesses. They will host events to activate the park as a community gathering space while building relevant skills for career success. The Green Team helps youth advance sustainable change in their community and at MacArthur Park.

Through Nuestros Murales Unidos, communities in Central LA will come together to design public art spaces that reflect the communities themselves and serve as a space for gathering and collaboration.

YPI’s College Choice Tool helps students find “best fit” schools for academics, cost, and preference, helping them earn a college degree with less debt.

YPI’s COLLEGE PROMISE helps low-income students prepare for and go to college through financial education and a unique 3:1 match that puts $981 into special savings accounts for 1,300 students who otherwise may not be able to afford school. $981 is the gap to cover community college costs after financial aid, an amount that also makes it three times more likely students will enroll in college—and four times more likely they’ll graduate. That’s something great for L.A. now and in 2050.

We wanna make #LA the best place to PLAY! Let's get ALL kids walking to parks by opening schools on wknds & #summer! #LA2050

Promise Neighborhoods is President Obama’s signature education and poverty initiative to transform schools and communities into vibrant centers of excellence and opportunity. Based on the Harlem Children’s Zone model, the Los Angeles Promise Neighborhood (LAPN) led by the Youth Policy Institute (YPI) offers a blueprint for success in Los Angeles in 2050. YPI was awarded a $30 million Promise Neighborhood implementation grant in December 2012 by the U.S. Department of Education, one of only seven grants awarded nationwide. Los Angeles is the largest city in the US to be recognized with a Promise Neighborhood award. At the heart of the LAPN will be a cradle-to-career continuum of services in the communities of Hollywood and Pacoima. School transformation will be at the core of community transformation. The LAPN will be a zone of choice for families, with an array of high-quality traditional, charter, pilot, and partnership schools. The LAPN goal is to have young children entering school ready to learn, students achieving at high levels, and youth graduating from high school prepared for college and careers. Families will enjoy safe, connected neighborhoods with economic opportunities and clear pathways to success. How do we get there? By working together (LAPN has over 60 public and private partners) to break down silos and eliminate waste while getting the most from limited resources. The heart of LAPN is an innovative public-private partnership that blends diverse funding streams around a core set of outcomes and objectives that improve education while fighting poverty. LAPN is transforming 19 neighborhood schools in Hollywood and Pacoima into full-service community schools while opening six Promise Neighborhood Centers and dozens of satellite centers to support families. This is the educational model for Los Angeles in 2050. YPI has worked for over a decade building this continuum of cradle-through-college-and-career programs that link together to ensure that children and families access needed support. These efforts have been jumpstarted by the Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant awarded in 2012. YPI is ready to expand this continuum, which includes services like afterschool tutoring, early education programs, health and nutrition programs, college and career readiness workshops, job training, and public computer centers with access to broadband technology. LAPN serves Pacoima and Hollywood distressed neighborhoods with low performing schools, high rates of poverty, and low rates of educational attainment. Only 36% of LAPN students are at or above grade level in English Language Arts and 34% in math compared to 48% and 46% of LAUSD students. The LAPN graduation rate is 54% - much lower than the LAUSD graduation rate of 64%. YPI and LAPN commit to making major improvements on all five My LA2050 Education metrics, because school transformation and wraparound support that move the needle on all metrics is the only way LA can keep its promise to students for a high quality public education. LAPN transforms schools with parents, principals, and teachers through teacher professional development for effective and data-driven teaching and the use of Academic Coaches and Tutors at each school. YPI's Efforts-to-Outcomes longitudinal data system tracks student achievement and needs to evaluate best methods to help them learn. An Early Warning System identifies at-risk students based on grades, attendance, and other indicators associated with dropping out, and provide academic interventions to help students succeed. All 19 LAPN schools (both LAUSD and charter schools) become Full-Service Community Schools that offer youth and families wraparound services such as nutrition and wellness programs, ESL and GED classes, academic tutoring and enrichment, gang and drug prevention, digital literacy, college and career preparation, financial literacy, and referrals for other services. YPI has built a unique public-private partnership with the County and City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District, LA Area Chamber of Commerce, and community-based organizations that provides academic support, mentoring, digital literacy, college and career readiness programs, health and mental health services, wellness and physical activity, case management, financial literacy, among other programs. LAPN blends multiple funding streams in support of common objectives articulated in a shared Memorandum of Understanding. What does this mean? LAPN partners have committed to integrate services into the cradle-through-college-and-career continuum to achieve shared goals. By blending funding in this way, LAPN uses resources more efficiently, while simultaneously increasing the impact of each individual service. Partners also commit to sharing data in order to evaluate program impact. A new way to work together to help youth and families succeed. That’s the Los Angeles Promise Neighborhood.