Every Child/Every Promise Breakfast Celebrates 2011 Youth Indicator Report and 100 Best Communities for Young People Award

November 08, 2011    |   Categories: News, Our Initiatives, Every Child Every Promise
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On November 9, nearly 80 people gathered for breakfast at the Hotel Julien in the name of helping Dubuque’s youth succeed. The event was both a celebration of Dubuque’s recent national recognition as one of America’s Promise Alliance’s 100 Best Communities for Young People presented by ING, as well as an introduction to Every Child/Every Promise’s 2011 Youth Indicator Report, Dubuque’s Promise.

Beginning in 2006, Every Child/Every Promise (ECEP), in strategic alliance with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, hosted community events to define and measure youth service gaps in the Dubuque community. The result was the 2008 Community Growth Chart, a report comprised of various measures of Dubuque’s success in helping young people to succeed. ECEP synthesized stakeholder input on the Growth Chart into the 2009 Youth Master Plan, a blueprint for the Dubuque community to collaborate in order to draw in more resources and to create positive outcomes for children, youth and families.

The 2011 Youth Indicator Report, which will appear in this Sunday’s Telegraph Herald, is a follow-up to the 2008 Community Growth Chart. Like its predecessor, the data in the 2011 Youth Indicator Report measure five key areas—called Five Promises—that correlate with success in both youth and adulthood: Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, An Effective Education, and Opportunities to Serve. Beyond the actual numbers, the report also notes whether the trend of each data point is heading in the right direction, holding steady or going in the wrong direction with regard to helping Dubuque County youth succeed.

The online component of the Youth Indicator Report is located at www.everychild-everypromise.org and contains more in-depth information, including five years of historical data for each of the 36 indicators.

“The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque and Every Child/Every Promise have a mutual commitment to collecting and sharing data in order to create continuous community improvement,” says Nancy Van Milligen, CEO and president of the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque. “The 2011 Youth Indicator Report is a tool that can help ensure the success of our young people, which creates positive outcomes in all other areas of our community.”

Dubuque’s dedication to supporting at-risk youth through programs like Every Child/Every Promise is part of the reason it has been honored four times as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People. Through ECEP, community leaders and individual citizens are collaborating to address and identify needs and gaps in data collection and analysis with tools like the Youth Master Plan and 2011 Youth Indicator Report. ECEP task teams are also focusing on areas like out-of-school programming and transportation. A partnership between ECEP and the East Central Intergovernmental Association revitalized the Free Way to Fun City program, allowing more than 500 young people free and easy access to the Jule this past summer. Meanwhile, students at Jefferson and Washington Middle Schools are currently enjoying more than 25 after-school activities through the Leadership Enrichment After-school Programs (LEAP), through another partnership between Dubuque Community Schools, nonprofit service providers and ECEP.

Being a 100 Best community not only demonstrates commitment to local young people; the award fosters local pride, bolsters economic development and shines the spotlight on the people and programs that are building better communities. The competition also facilitates the sharing of best practices among communities nationwide regarding education, access to health care, reading score improvement, youth service and pre-school enrollment, among many other areas.