Mayor Fenty, Youth and Youth Advocates to Focus on Needs of Disconnected Youth at Citywide Forum on March 27

The DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA), the DC Children’s Trust Fund, the DC KIDS COUNT Collaborative (A Project of the DC Children’s Trust Fund), the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Executive Office of the Mayor are holding a forum on Tuesday, March 27 at 2:30 pm to better understand the challenges facing disconnected youth in DC to and to help identify the tools, resources and opportunities that youth need to successfully transition to adulthood.

The half-day series of panels and discussions, which will include youth advocates and service providers, youth who have overcome significant challenges in their own lives, and a keynote speech by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, will shine a spotlight on vulnerable youth in DC and help create a roadmap for leaders in the city to address these young people’s needs.

The forum reflects a recognition among city leaders, across sector, that far too many youth in DC are out of school and out of work, disconnected from the mainstream and isolated from the responsibilities and learnings that take place in a job and at school and which lead to future success.  

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 16 percent of 18-24 year-olds in the District of Columbia are not working, not attending school and do not have more than a high school diploma.   Many of these youth are homeless.  

In the fall of 2006, the DC Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and the DC Children’s Trust Fund, in cooperation with the DC KIDS COUNT Collaborative for Children and Families, released a report, “The Unemancipated Youth Project,” which focused on a sub-group of disconnected youth, those ages 13 to 17 “who are virtually living on their own without formal parental or guardian supervision.”   While 2,000 homeless youth seek services each year in the District of Columbia, the DC government, through local non-profit